bloody history
by rainydaylovers
Summary: itachi doesnt want to remember what happened between he and sasuke...itaxsasu, narusasu, and now some naruita. dont kill me. a little bit of kisaxita. rated M for a little smut but hey, I love it anyway. please review! xxchuuxx
1. Chapter 1 seasons

It all started one sun-soaked Thursday afternoon in July, the warm fingers of light stretching through all of Japan. Sasuke was sitting cross-legged in a field, looking bored and practicing Chidori. He gathered a bubble of chakra in his palm and focused on putting all of his energy into the ball of surging blue cupped in one hand. He sucked it back in, slumped over to one side lazily and stared at the grass inches from his nose. Sasuke wasn't really one for summer; the sun was always too hot or too bright, and his skin always burned so easily, so at the end of the hot season he would be stuck with a humiliatingly red, stinging face.

Sasuke didn't like most seasons, actually. He hated the fall because of all the leaves on the ground that made it so hard to be quiet. He hated the spring because there were so many smiles and flowers and new things growing. The only thing he enjoyed about spring was the rain. The cool, pattering rain slicking his face and drenching his clothes. He would stand for hours outside in the rain, feeling pearly drops hit his skin and drip off. Other than rain, he hated spring as much as summer. He enjoyed winter, though—the snow, whether falling or coating the ground, was the only thing he could honestly say he found beautiful. He loved standing in the snow, being buried with inch over inch of white fluffy powder. He loved the isolation of the winter, too, because it was so cold and icy outside, people were hesitant to spend their days in the whiteouts, so he could find some peace outside in the snow and chill.

There was someone else who felt the same way about the seasons as he did. Sakura loved the summer and spring, was comfortable in the fall, and despised the cold of winter. Naruto liked warm weather, too, and he was bored with snow and rain. But there was one other person who stood in the rain, looking up to the sky, someone else who would lay outside in the winter and feel snow melting on their face and love it more than anything. Of course, Sasuke hated to remember that the only person who truly hated heat and loved cold as much as he did was his older brother, Itachi, whom he'd sworn to kill.

------

Itachi was hanging silently from a tree branch in the forest, shaded from the disgusting heat and light of the summer sun. Overlapping branches kept him cool and dark even in the high point of the day, when Japan was at its hottest and the sun would glimmer mockingly at him, daring him to come out in the exposure and burn his pale skin. Kisame was fiddling with the wrapping on his shark-skin sword, as bored as ever and unentertained with the mere idea of spending a day or more doing nothing but sitting and waiting, hiding from the elements; hour after hour was the same old thing, just crouching and stalking along under the cover of the canopy.

"What, are you gonna melt in the sun?" Kisame asked suddenly, glaring at Itachi. Itachi looked over and glared back. His dagger-eyed look shut his companion up.

"You and I both know I hate the summer."

"The dog days of summer, eh Itachi?"

"Exactly. The dog days of summer, not the Akatsuki days."

"Oh, Itachi, you were gonna say weasel days but you turned back." Kisame winked. Itachi continued to glare at him.

"Why don't we do something more interesting then?" Kisame asked, picking at the black nail polish on his fingernails.

"Like what?"

"Why don't we go find Orochimaru? He hates the sun too."

"Why the hell would we see him?"

"So you two can bitch off to each other about how terrible summer is while he makes me gay tea."

"Oh, shut up, Kisame."

Kisame sighed and leaned back against a branch.

"You're just antisocial."

"You know what, Kisame, that is the last straw." Itachi flicked a kunai at Kisame, slashing his shoulder open.

"Hey," Kisame yawned boredly, poking at the knife sticking out of the tree. "You're nowhere near pissing me off."

"You, however, are severely pissing _me_ off," Itachi growled, glowering at the Swordsman of the Mist perched leisurely in the tree across from his.

"Whatever."

"Do you really hate just sitting here this much?"

"Well, duh."

"Kisame, don't be a bitch."

"Takes one to know one."

"Shut up."

"Where's your bro, anyway?"

Itachi didn't reply. He flinched and looked away.

"Yo, earth to weasel?"

"Shut up," came the quiet reply.

Kisame shut up. He knew he'd hit a soft spot. But he didn't care. He wanted to know where the little Uchiha was, and he wanted to know now. Kisame was frustrated. He hated it when Itachi just brushed him off like that. But there wasn't much he could do about it now; Itachi was giving him the silent treatment.

"Ita-sama?" Kisame asked, more softly this time.

"What?"

"What really happened between you and Sasuke?"

_xxchuuxx_


	2. Chapter 2 broken

"Hey, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura chirped as she bounced over toward Sasuke, who was lying in a motionless heap on one side, his back to her. Naruto caught her hand to stop her from reaching him. She glared at him, tugged out of his grip and continued over to Sasuke. She realized with a jolt he was something she'd never seen him as before—vulnerable. There were lines marking his face, lines she didn't recognize. Lines from dried tears. And on his arms and chest, under his ripped shirt, lines of blood. Gashes. Naruto had sensed this and hoped to stop Sakura from freaking out and leaving him to deal with the body. As Sakura collapsed, he rushed forward to catch her. He took one last glance at Sasuke and tossed Sakura over his shoulder.

_What the hell happened to the guy? Looks like he got beat up pretty bad…_Naruto shrugged and headed back to the main square, ignoring Sakura, who was now hitting him recklessly and kicking him in the stomach as hard as she could. He dropped her in the dust, not caring that she would definitely pitch a fit later, and wandered off.


	3. Chapter 3 lost time

**This part's got some hard lemon, so watch your step guys!**

**_xxchuuxx_**

"I love you."

"Ita-chan?"

Itachi grinned maliciously and unclipped Sasuke's shorts, sliding the zipper down lustfully and flicking them down so they pooled around his ankles. Or something. As Itachi slid Sasuke's boxers off, ignoring the younger boy's flushed red face, he looked up with eyes that would kill, eyes that would slash and burn and stab until the flies came for you and they'd already built a coffin just your size.

"I finally got to you, eh, Sasuke?"

Sasuke leaned back as Itachi touched him skillfully in a way that made him almost forget his recent affair with Naruto. Itachi was sucking and licking and laughing and Sasuke was swallowing groan after groan, biting his lip harder and harder until it was bleeding. With no one to stop him, he could withstand the pain until the blood was literally down to his neck. Itachi licked the blood away and kissed Sasuke with a raw intent both Uchihas understood from years and years of training against one another. Kisame was gone and Naruto was gone, and the only people in all of the world, it felt, were the two brothers in the clearing doing unthinkable things. Itachi and Sasuke had even forgotten the feud they'd had, and the fact that they were related and that this was all so wrong. It was like sex drove both of them to such extremes, nothing they'd ever believed meant anything anymore.

And finally Sasuke couldn't take it anymore. He dipped his chin and tipped forward to rest on Itachi's head, lost in the feeling that he hadn't thought existed. Itachi was so ready for this, so ready for Sasuke to give in. He scraped his teeth along Sasuke's cock, enjoying every second of this. It would all be done and gone afterwards and as soon as Itachi finished the blowjob, they'd forget it ever happened. Sasuke sighed heavily, body shaking, toes curled, grabbing fistfuls of Itachi's hair, clawing at his brother's back, and let go.

"I-Itachi…I…I'm going to…I'm going to co—"

And then Sasuke was just a ragged heap, lying there as Itachi floated away, wiping his face clean and moving on as if Sasuke had only been a victim, a game, prey, to leave and drift off as soon as he had gotten what he wanted. Itachi sucked the last of it off his black thumbnail and was suddenly gone to hell knows where. Sasuke was huffing and puffing and his chest was heaving as he struggled to breathe. Pulling his clothes back on with trembling hands, he wandered out of the clearing and into the thick of the forest. Branches ripped through his hair, tugged at his clothes, struck at his face. His lip was stinging so he bit it harder, to try to focus everything he had on the pain. He didn't want to think about Itachi, and he especially didn't want to think about Itachi making him feel so vulnerable. He'd lived his entire life training to kill his brother. And all it had taken for the older man to defeat him was a fistful of shurikens, the element of surprise and a blowjob?

He felt like such a train wreck. Itachi was probably disappearing off into the night to get his kicks from someone else, and Sasuke was the only one going home alone, to bandage up his wounds and try to heal his dignity under starlight, practicing jutsus in self-training so he could defeat Itachi. And even after what had just happened, it still felt as though the Itachi he strived to kill was hugely different from Itachi, his older brother, the one he'd always looked up to and wanted to be like. His father had always favored Itachi, and that was what really made Sasuke train so hard in the first place. His father was always disappointed in him, always saying how Itachi was so amazing and how it was such a shame Sasuke wasn't more like him, always getting his highs from Sasuke's lows. Sasuke loved his father and would do anything to please him. It just wasn't fair.

Sasuke sat down and hugged his knees, rocking back and forth on the crackling leaves beneath him. The forest made it seem like fall forever. And much as Sasuke hated fall, this was fine by him. As he sat and tasted the blood from his slashed lip, he knew Itachi would always be better than him. Would always make Sasuke feel ashamed and small and defeated. Would always make him feel like he did that day, watching his parents die, watching his family and his friends and his clan fall as Itachi locked eyes with him. He would always feel low and dry and ruined whenever Itachi was around.

And not until he was asleep did he wonder why Itachi had said he loved him.


	4. Chapter 4 out of focus

"So you screwed the little mini-Uchiha," Kisame frowned, his eyes lacking their usual mischievous glint. Frustrated and anxious, he picked at a half-healed slice on his knuckle. It was pretty late, and Kisame couldn't quite catch the look on Itachi's face. The Uchiha had an irritating tendency of disappearing into the high collar of his black cloak when he wasn't in the mood for talk. His hair always fell in his eyes when he was like that too, so Kisame could never tell what his companion was thinking.

Itachi shrugged, not ready to talk about the rough time he'd given Sasuke out in the forest, with its heated kisses and fevered glances. His red eyes flashed quietly, making him seem even more intimidating. Silence from Itachi was unnerving; it was like he was stalking you, picking out his prey carefully, preparing to strike. Whenever he was so quiet it was obvious to anyone who knew him that he was thinking hard, usually planning something big. No matter what, whenever that feeling hung in the air and no one spoke, Itachi was hard to read. He was hard to read no matter what, actually.

Kisame slid up beside Itachi, chin rested on his shoulder, and breathed into the Uchiha's ear. Kissing Itachi's neck lightly, he wrapped his arms around Itachi's shoulders and laughed quietly, to himself.

"You Uchihas have always been such a strange sort."

"So why hang out around us? It's bound to wear off on you."

"Why do you think I like you, Itachi-kun?"

Silence.

"I just fucked my little brother today. I don't see how anyone can like me."

"You're fun to be around. And trust me, if you're as twisted as I am a good screw is worth a lot of moral value."

Itachi shook his head slowly.

"I sometimes think that, Kisame, but then I backtrack and ask myself what the hell I was thinking."

Kisame laughed a little, and Itachi shuddered, still wrapped in blue-tinted arms. The muscles on Kisame's arms bulged a little as he tightened his grip on Itachi.

"I still like you, you little Akatsuki bitch."

Itachi had to smile at this. Kisame grinned in response, knowing it took a lot to get a smile out of Mr. Emotionless. Itachi turned around a little to look at the man holding him from behind. He ran a shiny black fingertip over Kisame's face, tracing jawbones and gills and the slightly raised cheeks under those laughing eyes. Itachi looked at Kisame as though he were a portrait, something he'd probably only see once or twice and then forget. But still, a friend is a friend, either way, and Itachi was low on friends anyway.

"I know it's hard for you to deal with your brother. You love him, you hate him. He wants to kill you, you killed your family, and both of you are tragically hopeless romantics. But it'll get better."

Itachi looked up, bewildered, abandoning his unusually gentle display of what might be called affection, smoothing creases on Kisame's cloak, touching here and there as he tried to show appreciation for the trust and comfort Kisame was offering, something Itachi had never known. His head was spinning as the words sunk in. _It'll get better?_ Yes, Kisame really had just said that, hell knows why. Both of them had lived through and lived with the raw, painful truth all their lives, and they both knew nothing ever got better. To Itachi, everything was suddenly a blur and he felt hot lines trace his jaw, and realized he was crying for quite possibly the first time in his life.

Crying felt good, he thought suddenly. It was like a huge weight lifted off his shoulders. It felt so good to know he was finally giving in, and somehow it was like he actually felt safe. He was anything but safe, though. As out-of-character and new this was to the Uchiha, he felt like everything was gone and he was just letting it all pour out.

"Nothing's fucking getting better! I killed my clan! I screwed my little brother! I ruined my life and everyone else's! _Nothing is fucking getting better!_" Itachi didn't feel like himself. He felt shaky and unsteady and strange. He felt like someone had just hit him in the chest with a sledgehammer. He felt like he had just swallowed boiling water. He felt like someone had replaced his legs with jelly. He felt like there was someone holding a hot poker to his face. He felt like he had dirt in his eyes. Itachi collapsed to the dust, clutching at his head, tearing at his hair, clawing at his face. It didn't feel good to cry anymore. It felt horrible. His throat ached and his stomach hurt and he was trembling all over. A pang in his temples reminded him that his head was throbbing, and his face burned with heat. He just kept crying like his eyes had been holding back waterworks all his life. Which they probably had.

He felt a warm hand on his shoulder, and another scooping him up from under his back. The hand from his shoulder moved down, hovering over his body until it reached under to support his legs. As he was lifted into the air, Itachi didn't care that he was a total mess in his friend's arms. He didn't care that his face was flushed red and wet with tears from many years of holding them back. He didn't care that his hot puffs of breath were visible in the cool night air. He didn't care that he was clenching his teeth together so hard and tight he was probably leaving permanent scrapes and dents in his perfectly shaped white teeth. There was something about it that made it all okay, even though none of it really was.

And even though Uchiha Itachi in tears wasn't the same as Uchiha Itachi only minutes before, the Itachi drifting off to a hazy sleep in Kisame's arms, whoever the hell he was, couldn't care less.


	5. Chapter 5 breaking breaths

"Itachi keeps sneaking his way into my dreams," Sasuke groaned, a pout on his face so childish it was making it harder and harder for Kisame not to burst out laughing.

"Maybe it's because his name means weasel," the Swordsman of the Mist offered with a snicker. Sasuke glared at him.

"Shut up, fish-guy."

"Oh Sasu-kun, you're so much like your big brother." He put one big hand on Sasuke's shoulder as he smirked.

"Don't call me that," Sasuke, irritated, pried the oversized fingers off his arm and tugged away. Kisame was still grinning like a maniac when Sasuke started pacing.

"I don't know why I'm even wasting my time talking to you," he muttered, crossing his arms as he whirled around to continue pacing frantically. "Ni-chan just keeps getting into my dreams…oh god…did I really just say Ni-chan?"

Kisame leaned back, amused, arms folded smugly over each other. Sasuke was panicky and frustrated now, and it showed.

"Sasuke, maybe you should calm down."

"Shut up!"

And then there was a electrifyingly blue ball of pounding energy in Sasuke's palm, and he was getting ready to kill whoever was in his way.

"Stop it."

Kisame caught his wrist.

Sasuke kicked and struggled, writhing furiously as he pounded his fists on Kisame's back. Kisame pulled Sasuke close to him and bent over a little so that they were face to face.

"You and your brother—"

"I'm going to kill him!"

"—had sex. And you're in love. And neither of you like it, but that's the way it goes. So shut it and settle things with him, because you'll be as miserable as he will be if you don't fix things."

"He killed my fucking clan!"

"Yeah, and you intend to kill him."

"That's called revenge."

"An eye for an eye, I guess. But what does that get us? Two blind men."

Sasuke was still scowling, but he looked slightly defeated.

"You know, Sasu-kun…"

"What?"

"I always knew there had to be something about you that made Itachi care so much."

"Huh?" Sasuke's scowl faded, his eyes darkened. He looked so soft and weak when Kisame said this.

"I like you, Sasu-kun."

Kisame smiled and let go of Sasuke's wrist. Sasuke looked up slowly and stalked off. He didn't remember how or why they'd started talking, except that he distinctly remembered Kisame saying that he needed to talk to Sasuke about Itachi.

"You….like me? _You_ like me?"

"Yeah."

"But what about—"

"Itachi? Yeah, so? I mean, really, can't I think you're a good kid without wanting to screw your brains out?"

Sasuke blinked, wiped at his face, and offered a very slight hint of a smile. But it didn't matter, really, because both of them knew he was smiling inside and out.

As Kisame wandered off, sharkskin blade in tow, Sasuke sat on a rock and shook his head, wondering where he would go next. The last few days were a blur. Honestly, they were a blur while they were happening, too. But it didn't really matter, because something felt settled in him, something that had never been settled before.


	6. Chapter 6 never meant it

"You talked to _Sasuke?_" Itachi fumed, stomping his feet angrily as he approached Kisame.

"What, can you smell him on me?" Kisame shoved his hand in Itachi's face as if to give him the scent. "Woof, woof."

"Shut up, you blue bitch." Itachi massaged his temples and paced.

"Tell me really, who's the actual bitch in this situation?"

"I said shut up!" Itachi was back to normal by now, pacing and growling, huffy and pissy about everything, Kisame thought. The Uchiha was obvious too interested in the topic of his brother.

"Okay, okay, so I talked to him, alright? Just chill it, weasel."

Itachi groaned.

"How do you expect me to calm down if you just talked to my little brother about me?"

"Wow, you _do_ have ESP," Kisame said flatly.

"Kisame!"

"Whaaaaat?"

"Oh, nevermind."

Itachi was pacing again.

"Why is this such a big deal?"

Itachi stopped, still rubbing his temples.

"I….don't know, actually."

Kisame rolled his eyes.

"So you're spazzing for no reason."

"Basically," Itachi shrugged, his head still pounding. For whatever reason, he felt like this was urgent. His brain kept telling him that it was of huge importance that his partner had confronted Itachi's younger sibling. Itachi was still upset under his outer layer from what had happened yesterday, and he was yet to understand why. Kisame shrugged.

"Whatever."

"So what'd you talk to him about?" Itachi shuffled a little, picking at his nail polish, pretending he wasn't as interested as he was.

"You."

"Kisame!"

"What? It's for your own good. I just told him it's pointless to fight."

Itachi rolled his eyes and sighed heavily.

"Do you know the kid, Kisame?"

"I know he's not like that, Ita-san."

"Shut up. You're not like this either. What'd you do with Kisame?" he asked sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. Kisame shrugged.

"We all have our flaws."

"Yeah?"

"Yup. Yours is that you say shut up too much and you're practically bipolar."

Itachi shoved him. The taller man didn't budge.

"I hate that," he muttered.

"Deal with it. You're just short." Kisame sniggered, flashing his sharp white teeth.

"Shut up."

"Told you."

"Well I am _not_ bipolar!" His cloak luckily hid his childish pout. Kisame wouldn't be able to keep a straight face if he was face-to-face with the immature scowl making Itachi look like a six-year-old. He did act like one, sometimes.

"You are too."

"Am not!"

"And you argue too much."

"Shut it, bitch."

"And you have anger management problems."

Itachi skulked off, silently loathing his partner.

"Ever considered a therapist?"

This was the last straw. Itachi was quickly on top of Kisame, tackling the big man and clawing furiously at his face.

"You're a terrible fighter when you're mad, you know," Kisame pointed out. And suddenly their lips met. Neither of them had intended to do so, and neither of them wanted to, especially in the mood they were in now, but they didn't stop. Itachi and Kisame ended up lying side-by-side, wondering how it had happened. There was very little chemistry, but as much as their personalities clashed it was as if not being able to stand each other made them closer.

"You do know this means nothing," Itachi sighed as the last traces of light left the sky. Kisame shrugged.

"I know."

"And?"

"Whatever."

Itachi rolled over to face Kisame.

"What just happened."

"I don't know any better than you do, Ita-san."

Itachi rolled his eyes and turned over, so he was lying on his back.

"What are you guys doing so peaceful, yeah?"

Itachi and Kisame sat up instantly. Itachi began to sweat nervously.

"N-Nothing, Deidara."

Kisame grinned.

Deidara gave them a strange look, shrugged, and turned. Tobi was peeking over Deidara's shoulder before, and Deidara found himself a hair's breath away from Tobi's face. He scowled and pushed Tobi out of his way. Even though Tobi didn't have any particular facial features, it was clear that he was smiling.


	7. Chapter 7 dawnbreak

_Itachi was standing over Sasuke and his six shadow clones, who were all grouped together as they stared up at the older Uchiha._

_"If I can reduce one Sasuke to a heap panting and twitching on the ground, imagine what I can do to seven of you?"_

_Itachi grinned maliciously and leaped forward, making six shadow clones without blinking. Each Itachi clone found a partner and started at what they did best at three AM. The real Sasuke and Itachi writhed and moaned together, neither of them totally dominant, completely nude and grappling with each other in the dirt. Bodies coated with dust, they struggled for the upper hand, sometimes Sasuke winning, sometimes Itachi. They thrusted and cried and growled as they fought out their power play, loving and hating, lusting and slashing, sometimes trying to kill each other and sometimes trying to court. They danced gracefully through the night, pouncing and tumbling, howling and shrieking as the stars glistened menacingly overhead._

_Sasuke, hypnotized, found himself lost in Itachi's eyes as the older boy smirked and worked his magic. It was pointless trying to count the screams echoing through the night, not only from Sasuke and Itachi but also from the clones working almost as hard at butchering each other. It was also pointless trying to count the times Itachi and Sasuke came, orgasming as they hooked limbs and pulled forward into tender kisses. Itachi would nibble Sasuke's ear as Sasuke licked Itachi's neck, and then these passionate moments would send them further into the great entanglement of limbs and everything would set back into motion again._

_They panted and moved as one, bodies pressed together as they tumbled and squirmed, until the sun started to rise. The first fingers of light crept across the horizon and Sasuke was reminded of making feverish love to Naruto Uzamaki._

_"No," Itachi growled sinisterly, lustfully, angrily, in Sasuke's ear, "you must forget the Uzamaki."_

_Sasuke's heart thudded violently, pounding against his ribcage like a caged animal as memories returned._

_"No!" Itachi hissed furiously, his touch hot and tantalizing, his voice coated with a thick, raw kind of enticement Sasuke couldn't resist. As they lapsed off again into the painfully pleasure-filled jolts of movement, Sasuke forgot for a while. But soon the thoughts returned._

_"Sasuke…" Itachi's voice was low, angry, warning Sasuke to stop thinking about the blonde kid. But as much as he wanted to, he couldn't._

_"Sasuke." Itachi sucked on Sasuke's earlobe, sending chills of excitement down Sasuke's spine. "Don't think about the fox. The one here fucking you is me. The one here touching you is me. The one here breathing heavy in your ear is—"_

_"Naruto Uzamaki," the voice finished breathlessly, and suddenly it_ _**was**__ Naruto behind him, gripping Sasuke's chiseled arms, his fingers reaching across Sasuke's side to carefully touch his chest._

_Sasuke moaned, readier than ever to be taken._

And then he was awake.

Sasuke woke in a cold sweat, panting, jet-black eyes wide and frantic with fear and panic. This dream…what was it telling him? Who the hell did he love? Was it just a dream illustrating the raw intent Sasuke held to passionately screw practically anything that moved? But no, it made sense. Itachi and he had just had a go at it, gotten halfway there, so sure he was dreaming about it happening. And he'd had an affair with Naruto, a sun-kissed summer love of trembling and bouncing under thin, staticky sheets. It was also normal to dream about Naruto.

But why did this seem so strange?

It just made him feel like his whole world was falling apart and putting itself back together hopelessly jumbled.

"Damn it, what a fucked-up dream," Sasuke muttered under his breath, wiping the thin layer of perspiration from his face.

And then Itachi was hovering over him, smirking.

"Jesus, you fainted pretty hard after I pretended to be Naruto. I mean, we had a good night, and I was testing some limits. So when I decided to impersonate him, I was sure to copy what he looks like and sounds like to see how you'd react. I figured you would take it bad, but I didn't know I'd have to wait 'til noon for you to wake up."

Sasuke let out a scream that ripped through the afternoon air and fell unconscious again.


	8. Chapter 8 burn it down

**This chapter was sort of dedicated to DDB. Thanks for all your help and constructive critisism. Im watching the OOCness and trying to keep it to a low amount(especially for Itachi!), though a little was needed to make it all...well...fall in place, i guess. just read it.**

Sasuke was lying there panting as he faded back into conciousness.

"He's awake, Itachi, yeah," a distant voice said.

"Hn." Sasuke sat up slowly, rubbing at his throbbing head, and glanced around at the group of people clustered around him. The only one with his back to him was a very bored-looking Itachi sitting on a gnarled root and staring off into the distance.

"W-what?" Sasuke, confused, looked around at the faces crowded around him. A tall figure with blue-tinted skin he recognized from that talk—man, he hated that guy—and some people he didn't recognize. There was a guy with white hair and a relatively serious face; a man with an orange, swirled face and a somehow curious expression, though he didn't have features; a guy with blonde hair in a ponytail and fishnets with stunning blue eyes; a guy whose face was encased by a Venus Flytrap; an uninterested-looking boy with bored eyes and spiky red hair, and a second man with white hair and a less handsome air to him. Sasuke regarded only a few of these mixed characters as particularly interesting—the blonde, who seemed to have mouths in his hands; the redhead, who took off his hand to inspect a gash on his otherwise perfect wrist; the shark man he'd met before; the boy with a Venus Flytrap around his head; and the orange-headed man with a swirl through his face. They just intrigued him, for whatever reason.

Itachi turned around slowly, obviously bored with this whole crew, though he seemed pretty close to the blonde and the shark man. The older Uchiha glanced Sasuke over with distaste, with his just-woke-up mussed hair and crinkled clothes.

He stood and moved gracefully towards Sasuke. As he fluidly passed his brother, his lips grazed Sasuke's cheek. Sasuke flinched and turned to watch Itachi's every move. Itachi sighed, as if he was obviously superior to all the rest of them, and glanced over, half-amused, at Sasuke.

"It's a shame I'm coming to actually like you a bit."

Everyone was silent, except for Sasuke's bewildered heavy breathing.

"W-what?" Sasuke said again.

"I can't believe I'm saying this. After all, you're not worth the time or the effort. You're not worth killing or loving or anything like that. But I'm starting to develop a few slight feelings for you." Itachi winced as he said this, as if it was painful to say.

Sasuke stared at him, eyes wild and confused.

"Itachi, yeah…."

Itachi glanced over, mildly interested, at the blonde, who was looking rather shocked as well. Itachi flicked one eyebrow up, questioning the blonde. He questioned Itachi right back with his intense dark blue eyes, his expression obviously saying how Itachi wasn't like this often. It wasn't like Itachi to care. Not at all like him. After all, it was just him. Me, myself, and I, really. He was a loner and he'd always been that way. He never cared about anyone. Maybe a bit of appreciation for the rest of them who worked with him, maybe just a bit, but never anything like this. And for Sasuke? It was just all so different.

Obviously out of place.

"So?" Itachi said coldly, as if he was topping off a full silent conversation they'd had with their eyes. Deidara looked away and shrugged.

"Whatever, yeah."

Itachi sighed heavily.

It was like throwing a blanket over a pink elephant. No matter what, you still know it's there.

"Itachi-kun?"

Itachi turned his head slowly to look at Sasuke. The whole time he'd delivered his little mini-speech he had never looked at his younger brother. The icy look Itachi gave Sasuke made him shudder. He could come pretty close to shooting angry daggers from his eyes, but his glares were nothing like Itachi's. Nothing could compare to the looks Itachi was capable of giving; looks that would stay with you to your grave, and probably be the last thing you'd ever see.

"Itachi, do you…."

He wasn't sure how to finish his sentence, captured by the painfully sharp stare Itachi was clearly intent on focusing on him. It made Sasuke nervous, and he started to fidget as the stress increased. Itachi was trying very hard to bore a hole in Sasuke's side, and he was doing a pretty good job of it.

"Oh, stop looking at me like that." Itachi scowled, but didn't say anything. "You owe me an explanation, at least. You killed the clan, you put me through enough I ought to be in a mental hospital, and now you just…you just…"

"You think I'm making this up?"

Itachi's voice was stone-cold, almost worse than his eyes. Sasuke shivered, frozen in his place, staring straight into those red-rimmed eyes staring him down. The black sharingan danced menacingly, taunting Sasuke, edging him to say something. Breathless, Sasuke felt his face drain of color as he locked gazes with his older brother. _You lover him, you hate him._ Kisame was right, Itachi thought. But it was better if he didn't think. Just like it was better if he didn't cry, and didn't believe anything would get better. After all, that wasn't him. Not until someone broke him down to the core and lit it all on fire.

"You don't really mean it, do you, Itachi-kun?"

As usual, silence was the loudest voice of all.


	9. Chapter 9 two way mirror

_Dammit,_ Itachi thought. It was late, and as usual, he was awake. The day had passed pretty quickly, mostly just introductions between Sasuke and the Akatsuki and the occasional argument between Tobi and pretty much everyone else, and so he still was very much awake. Only mentally exhausted, which was half the battle. He was at the top of a sinewy Akamatsu tree, thinking hard about what had happened the past few days. What happened with Kisame couldn't have really happened, could it? And that night with Sasuke was beyond thinking about. But what he'd said today pretty much took the cake. It was ridiculous to even consider crying, of course, and his dignity had taken a serious downfall literally overnight. His pride was going south, and fast.

He cursed under his breath and glared up at the stars, glittering overhead as if enjoying his pain. He hated it when people were happy, especially when he was pissed off for whatever reason. It was like they were mocking him, like they were showing off, gloating, rubbing it in his face that their lives were wonderful and his was horrid. It only made him more mad. He gritted his teeth and looked away from the stars. He ignored the Milky Way swirling overhead, the stars twinkling, the moon bathing him in silvery light. He looked down through the trees, cast a glance at Sasuke sleeping below, and glared. He was ruining everything; his dignity, his pride, his emotions, his plans. Sasuke had took a wrecking ball and slammed Itachi into the painful feelings he'd always hoped to avoid.

Was it really possible he'd told his brother he cared about him?

Yes, it was. He'd done it.

How pitiful.

Itachi scowled up at the sky again, hating the stars more than ever. They lived a perfect life, just watching and waiting and traveling to look down on other places each night. They were lucky. They never had to worry about being committed or ending up doing something stupid they'd completely regret later. They didn't have to worry about hating or loving. They could just watch it all, like an audience, applauding and laughing and thinking. They never got attached to someone and had trouble letting go or holding on. The stars got to just observe. Lucky them, Itachi thought. Living this out is a hell of a nightmare.

The stars, lucky fiends, never had to feel these things that ruined everything and made you do things you'd sworn never to do, no matter what. It was a horrible thing to think about, really, falling in love. It was disgusting. It got in the way of everything and it made you suddenly, pointlessly, enjoy the company of someone you used to despise. Sasuke had always been his foolish little brother, and he always would be. There was no point in him being anything more. He ought to just leave and forget he even had a brother. He ought to say Sasuke died years ago in an accident and leave it at that.

But he didn't. He didn't leap down from the tree and land perfectly on his feet. He didn't wake the Akatsuki up and tell them the plan. He didn't kill Sasuke and bury him in the hills nearby. And he didn't leave that part of Japan to start fresh. He knew the consequences of doing this, and he also knew the consequences of not doing it. He knew that by not doing it, he would end up stuck with Sasuke. He knew he would end up loving and hating him at the same time. He knew someone would end up dead, knew that one of the two brothers wouldn't survive. He knew that if he stayed, he and Sasuke would end up miserable and hopelessly trapped in a violent relationship.

He sighed. Oh well. It was completely idiotic, but he would stay. He couldn't quite say why. It just struck him as something he had to do. But he despised the kid, despised the thought, despised the relationship. He despised being stuck with him. He despised not moving on and pretending Sasuke didn't exist. Life would be better that way. Life _was_ better that way. But, even though he hated it, he didn't do anything. He leaned back in the tree and awaited what would come next.


	10. Chapter 10 water to wine

"Itachi?"

Itachi turned to face his brother. This whole hate-love thing was really fucking things up. It was taking a toll on him—normally he wouldn't even acknowledge Sasuke's voice. He blew the hair out of his face and glared at his brother, nudging him to continue.

"How about you don't talk to me anymore."

Itachi's eyes narrowed.

"What's that?"

"Don't talk to me. Don't even try."

"Do you really think you deserve to tell_ me_ that?"

"Don't ask me why, but I'm not going to talk to you anymore."

Itachi growled furiously.

"It's for the best, Ita-sama."

Itachi's bold angry eyes focused on Sasuke, as if willing him to die.

"If you don't want to talk to me, why bother calling me that?"

"Because I know you hate it."

Itachi swallowed a yell. He knew it was better to keep his cool than to explode and have all his dignity flushed down the drain with one big gulp.

Itachi said nothing, just watching, silently loathing his younger sibling.

"Well?"

"You're picking too much up from me," Itachi hissed. "You're fighting fire with fire."

"I love watching flames," Sasuke spat back.

Itachi's eyes flashed angrily as he glared and glared, scarlet eyes dappled with the black streaks that made him so famous for killing. It was strange to think that those lines and dots were what gave him a good amount of his power.

Sasuke turned, his own red eyes digging into Itachi's chest one last time. He didn't want to see that face, what he had despised and despised for so long. Yet he had loved him too. Had he? No. That wasn't possible. It wasn't possible after all those years training to kill his older brother, he had weakened enough to actually care for him. Even raw passion was still inexcusable. But for a reason he hated more and more each second, it hurt to leave. That's why he refused to face Itachi. He didn't want to love him. He wanted to hate him. Hating made it easy.

Loving is what always ruins everything.

Itachi knew he and his brother were both going insane from these feelings they had never asked for, never wanted to have. They never wanted to rely on one another, never wanted to trust or love or anything. Sasuke had looked up to Itachi, he had cared about him, and then Itachi had killed the clan so Sasuke hated him. It was simple to put it like that. It was hard to say, actually, who was suffering more. Sasuke, feeling this again after all the trauma Itachi had put him through, or Itachi, the one who had never had these feelings before and, especially towards Sasuke, he had no idea what to do?

I don't want these feelings, take them back, thought Sasuke. He knew Itachi was thinking the same thing. Neither of them spoke for several minutes. The silence was broken, unusually so, by Itachi's quiet, unnaturally even voice.

"You know, Sasuke, this would never have worked out anyway." Although the words alone could have been comforting, he said them with such brutal, cold intensity and distaste that it was clear he was only saying this to make some noise. The first thing that came to mind was of course the corny support you were supposed to provide when you knew everything would be awful. When you knew everything would be awful you were supposed to lie and say that it would be fine. Everything would be fine. But nothing was ever fine, even if everyone on earth said so.

"Why do you even bother to say things that aren't even a little true?"

He stood for countless more minutes, eyes on the ground, back still to his brother, when the silence began to frighten him. The air hung heavy, like a curtain, the humidity closing in on Sasuke just standing there, waiting for a reply. When met with silence, he tended to wait for a noise. When no one spoke, he let them sit. He never was the first to speak. A lot of people you could beat like that, making them talk first when you give them the silent treatment right back at them. It was quite useful when playing the Silent Game or when trying to get information out of someone. But Itachi couldn't care less about cold shoulders or awkward quiets. He could wait you out as long as he wanted to.

The silence was really getting unnerving. It felt like hours since either of them had said a word. Finally he couldn't take it any more.

But when he turned to look, Itachi was gone.


	11. Chapter 11 never know

Itachi was long gone, and so was the Akatsuki. He'd just decided to carry out his original plan, leaving the boy and moving on with the other members. Though it wasn't as clean as killing Sasuke and pretending he didn't exist, at least he was on his own again. But now, he was really starting realize he had nothing to do. The fox was so boring. There was no reason to hunt him down. And Orochimaru? Out of the question. There was nothing to do. For the first few hours, it felt light and relieving to have his younger brother and their unsettling relationship out of his hair. But by now he was really noticing that without a so-called lover to angst about, he would only angst about not having the lover. Not that he was a lover, of course. He wasn't even a brother. There was no way he could think about it. Ugh.

Traveling wasn't Itachi's favorite thing to do, but it killed time. He let out a heavy sigh. There really _was_ nothing to do.

"Kisame?"

"Eh?"

"What are we going to do?"

Kisame stopped.

"I'll go back with you if ya like."

Itachi blinked.

"Why do you say that?"

"You look like you don't want to be out here." Kisame shrugged. Itachi wasn't sure what to say to that.

"You," Kisame continued, "still like the boy. So go back."

Itachi growled.

"Face it. You like him, so let's go find him."

"The others won't come," Itachi glared.

"Stop making excuses. And don't lie. They would. They'd come if you wanted to go back. Now shut it and let's go."

"You know it's not that easy, and don't tell me to shut up." Itachi continued to glare at him. Kisame was unfazed, quite used to flaming looks from Itachi. He always seemed to be willing someone to die with his eyes. He had gotten so accustomed to these glares it was like they didn't exist. It was the norm, after all.

"So are we going back or not?" Kisame asked, watching his partner intently. There seemed to be something very interesting about Itachi today, though he couldn't put his finger on what it was. Maybe it was because he refused to admit what he thought about Sasuke. But no, that couldn't be it—he always did that. Maybe it was because he was particularly angsty today. Angsty. Heh. He liked that word. He loved getting to say it about Itachi.

"Why are you so disgustingly interested in making me go back to see my brother?"  
"He needs you, Itachi," Kisame winked, flashing sharp white teeth for the millionth time in all the years Itachi had known him. The Uchiha rolled his eyes.

"Do you really think that will _help_ persuade me to go back?"

"No, but it's fun to poke you about it." Kisame poked Itachi's shoulder. Red and black angry eyes narrowed warningly.

"Don't touch me."

"Heh heh." Kisame prodded the side of Itachi's head with one finger. Itachi glared, groaned, and resisted the impulse to twist Kisame's arm so far behind his back it would snap in half.

"I don't see why I put up with you," he sighed as he turned his back to the taller man. Kisame was still grinning, mostly because he got away with poking Itachi without getting hurt.

Though he was dancing dangerously close to the edge.

"Ita-sama," Kisame whined annoyingly, and Itachi closed his eyes, back to his partner, trying to keep his temper under control. He was naturally cold, calm, and collected, but putting up with an obnoxious shark man with blue skin was in no way on his list of "things to do." No pun intended.

"Why in the hell does everyone always _call_ me that?" he glowered, his eyes, as usual, trying desperately hard to make swiss cheese out of Kisame. Kisame continued to stare, head cocked to one side, at Itachi.

"What _is _it?"

"Are we going?"

Itachi threw his hands up, giving in. It was beyond him how anyone could manage to put up with him. His family probably had cut the slits in his face, he thought as he glared at the gills on Kisame's cheekbones. He knew it wasn't true, but honestly, there was no way he knew anyone, or believed anyone existed, who could ever father a child as painfully annoying as Kisame without causing him serious physical injury. Oh god, Kisame as a kid? He didn't even want to think of how short his tolerance would be of a little blue monster terrorizing his house. He stalked off, thinking violent thoughts about what he would do to his partner if he got any farther under his skin.

"Soooo, Itachi, are we going?"

He acted like a three year old, he really did.

"Fine, fine, we're going. But keep in mind we're not going for Sasuke, we're going because you're so damn obnoxious."

Kisame winked.

As the older man flashed off to gather the rest of the Akatsuki, Itachi lay face-down in the grass, contemplating his life and everything about it. It was pretty complicated, wasn't it? He tugged a few strands of light green out of the ground and held them up to the light. There were a lot of questions he had, not about him or Sasuke or the Akatsuki or Naruto or Japan or anything or anyone else, for that matter. He had a lot of questions, like who actually made fire for the first time and if anyone lived on other planets or if there was another species of life somewhere with intelligence equal to or greater than that of a human or where the world initially came from. There were theories, of course there were theories. But that didn't mean anything. No one knew for sure, no one human. Or at least, no one anyone knew.

It was a troublesome life to live, here on earth. You loved and you hated and you wondered, and no one ever answered your questions. You could ask and ask and ask and you would never know who you really were or who anyone was, and you would never know how small you really were, and you would never know if there was anything out there worth living for. You would never know if it would be better to shoot yourself into space and live or die and no one would know. You would never know if you could actually live underwater. You would never know anything, never know anything important. All Itachi knew was that he could lie there in the grass and think and think, and nothing would happen.

Because nothing ever got better.


	12. Chapter 12 One Too Many

Sasuke was throwing a Kunai around, hating himself for everything, especially for the fact that his hands were actually trembling. He was so jittery and confused and frantic that he sliced his finger open on the sharp blade. He sucked at the blood and paced in tight rows.

"You idiot, you idiot, you let him get away," he muttered to himself. Sasuke wasn't sure whether he had wanted Itachi to stay because he'd wanted to kill the older man or because he wanted someone who hated him just enough that he might actually love him. A little. Maybe. His eyes glinted angrily as he continued to pace, running fingers quickly through his spiky raven hair.

"You idiot," he repeated, wanting to slash something. He was like that sometimes. Anger made him violent, and violence made him reckless. Reckless wasn't good, but it was something. Not progress, exactly, but something. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke sat down heavily and started to tear at his hair. He hated feeling so ridiculously alone. He hated it, hated it, hated it. He hated people who rocked and mumbled to themselves, whose eyes were bloodshot and lined with dark circles from sleep loss. He hated people who were frantic and crazy. Actually, he just hated people.

"Idiot, idiot, idiot," he scowled, lying flat on his back and staring up at the vast expanse of sky. "Idiot, idiot." He wasn't very supportive, and he sure as hell wasn't peppy. His sole motivation had been to kill Itachi. But that wasn't happening any time soon.

"Idiot," he echoed, because there was nothing else to say.

As the silence closed in on him, Sasuke decided he had to do something to stop himself from going insane. To stop himself from turning into someone he would hate. He rubbed at his arms, whipped raw by fierce wind. The wind was gone now, though, and the lack of noise was becoming frightening. But Sasuke wasn't ready to be afraid; he also wasn't ready to be happy and deceived. He wouldn't let himself be played just so he could pity himself. He didn't want to be oblivious. He had to hunt the fucking man down and…and…

And what?

He had no idea.

Sasuke usually was a step ahead of things, but to be honest, he hadn't planned ahead. He had no idea what he would do if he found Itachi.

No idea whatsoever.

But he had to find his brother, you see, because it was all he had. It wasn't much, but it was something, and he needed something very badly.

He also needed Naruto-kun and he needed the brother Itachi used to be. But both of them were gone.

He missed both of them miserably. Naruto Uzamaki, a drunken, ramen-soaked boy with laughing blue eyes and a sharp grin. He had definitely changed something in Sasuke. It was strange. They pissed each other off so much that they filled up cracks and spaces. Naruto was Sasuke's brighter side, and Sasuke was Naruto's stronger core. They made something interesting. They just...fit. And now Naruto was gone and Sasuke was in ruins. It was as simple as that, he kept telling himself, but it wasn't simple at all.

Sasuke stood up and breathed deeply. He started off to find Itachi, and he had no idea how or where he would find him.

Sometimes, maybe, just maybe, it was okay to improv. It was actually better that way, really. No painful what-ifs or thinking about what would happen next. What would happen next was bullshit. It was up to fate to decide whether or not he would find Itachi.

He kind of liked it that way.


	13. Chapter 13 ashes to ashes

Sasuke was getting tired.

He'd been running all night, and he had refused to admit he was exhausted for the last several hours. He'd slowed his pace so he could keep going, but that had been hours ago. Now it was later than ever, and he could barely keep his eyes open. Much as he wanted to pull an all-nighter, he knew he couldn't if he expected to stay awake _and_ track down his older brother. Itachi was a lot of work. Bitter, elusive, cruel. And if he didn't want you to find him, you wouldn't find him. That was just the way it was.

He slowed even more, panting and sweating, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and the sweat from his brow. It was hard to keep up with someone when you had no idea where they were or which way they were going. Damn, it was complicated. He crouched down, huffing warm breath into the cool night air, his knees about to buckle, a painful stitch in his side. It took a lot to wear him down. Sasuke was surprised he had to give up so easily. Running his fingers through his hair, ruffling to separate the strands and to try and cool down. He lay down finally, limbs stretched spread-eagle on the ground, eyes closed, breathing hard. He let every little breeze touch his chest and face and throbbingly over-worked legs.

Over an hour ago he had been sweating hard enough that he had taken off his shirt to cool down. It hurt to move. Every breath was a blow to his ribcage, every heartbeat a slash to his bare chest. He inhaled slowly and held it, trying to get his heart rate back to normal. He couldn't rest long. He needed to keep going. If Sasuke didn't find Itachi by dawn, he would be forced to run in daylight. That wouldn't be to his advantage, not at all. Daylight gave bad cover and a hell of heat. He stretched his legs, massaging the pounding muscles. They relaxed ever so slightly, and Sasuke decided that if he was careful, he could get up, walk a little, and then get back to running.

It's hard, it really is, he thought as he looked up at the moon. He wondered if Itachi was watching the same stars drift and float lazily across the sky, seeing the same swirls of galaxies and moons and planets, thinking of the same things. He wondered if Itachi was looking for him, too. It was strange that he thought that, because it was true.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke jumped, blinking, suddenly knocked aware by the familiar cold voice. A chill crept down his spine. He looked Itachi up at down, still trying to grasp what was going on.

"What the….hell do you want, Itachi?"

Itachi smirked but didn't reply.

"Why did you leave me if you were going to come back for me?"

Itachi was still silent and deadly, smiling down at him with a hint of sharp teeth. He knew those teeth weren't sharp, but for some reason they looked that way, as he could tear him limb from limb with only his mouth. Which he probably could. Sasuke hated being vulnerable in any way, hated it more than anything. But hell, he was vulnerable now, and it wasn't all that bad. Maybe he was just still numb. It felt like someone had shot Novocain into his face. His cheeks tingled as if the muscles had fallen asleep. He wouldn't cry, wouldn't die, wouldn't fail. He only cried when his parents died. He didn't cry when he was hurt or when he was afraid or when anyone threatened him. He wouldn't cry. He wouldn't. He'd sworn it.

"Are you still the same, Itachi?"

Itachi cocked his head to one side, eyes narrowing ever so slightly, edging him to go on.

"Are you the same man who killed our entire clan?"

Itachi found that it was easier to be silent. He knew he could wear Sasuke to the bone just letting him drive himself to insanity with only his own voice, but for some reason he actually _wanted_ to respond this time. He let his younger brother continue.

"Why'd you do it, Itachi?"

Itachi gritted his teeth, lips clamped shut, eyes burning and burning a hole in the air beside Sasuke's head.

"Why'd you kill them?"

Itachi's knuckles were white from his tightly clenched fists. It took all his willpower to stay silent, rooted to his spot, curling and uncurling his toes in his shoes, pulling his fingers tighter and tighter together, scrunching every muscle in his body compressed and holding it hard and lean. He made himself taller with all that bundled strength ready as hell to burst out. He wouldn't strike Sasuke. He wouldn't break first.

"Why didn't you kill me?"

Itachi lashed out with a roar, unable to control it anymore. He was holding four Kunai in each hand, lunging toward Sasuke. But there was no noise other than the first initial yell. His arms were wrapped lightly but strongly around Sasuke, his shoulders hunched, his eyes closed. There was blood everywhere, dripping down his side, trailing his leg, meeting the ground to pool at his ankles. But it wasn't Sasuke who was bleeding. Itachi was the one biting back his screams, the one holding in his pain. He was the one who was feeling the tightness in his jaw release and then clamp back together again. He was the one who had given in first, and he had every idea of what had just happened.

He felt hot tears on his face. Impossible. Him, crying. That first night he'd cried, he hadn't really cried. Not like this. He was crying, but there was nothing but that pulsating pain from his stomach. Eight knives clattered to the stone behind Sasuke's back. Itachi rested his chin on Sasuke's shoulder, back arched like a cat's, his dark thin eyelashes clumped together with tears. Tears. Ugh. And everyone always said _Sasuke_ was the more emotional of the two.

The Kunai held them together but forced them apart, held calmly by Sasuke's bandaged lean fingers. Itachi was the one breaking down, but Sasuke was the one really in ruins on the inside. Itachi collapsed, and Sasuke went with him. Neither of them had really wanted to live in the first place. Sasuke looked absently up at his brother's face, their lips touching lightly, and put his face in his brother's robes. The cloak covered both of them. They lay there, bleeding together, hating together, loving together, while the night was still what some might call young.


	14. Chapter 14 black and white

Itachi looked up at the silver sliver of moon floating in the night sky like a drop of food coloring in a glass of water, not yet dissolved, not yet settled, as if debating whether to float or sink as it drifted eerily, hovering over his head. Sasuke wasn't quite awake yet, but he was getting there. He and the younger Uchiha had only slept a few hours, not much time lapsed between night and morning. This distressed Itachi; he'd hoped to kill time asleep, escaping the world, sleeping a long time just cradled in each other's arms. Sasuke had been stupid, looking for him, and he had been stupid too, looking for Sasuke. It made no sense that they loved each other. They should've hated each other. But of course, they did hate each other.

That was the only explanation for the throbbing gash right under Itachi's ribcage.

Itachi tasted blood from where he had been biting his tongue all night trying not to say anything to his younger brother. He sighed a long, heavy sigh and glanced down at Sasuke, a motionless heap in his lap. He was snuggled against Itachi's chest, inside his black-and-red robe. Which Itachi hated. Too close, too close. Personal space had always been an issue. But Sasuke was resting on the slash he'd given Itachi with that kunai last night, and for some reason his warm shoulder was making it hurt less. He would give anything not to move. But he had to, and he knew it. It would end very, very badly if he stayed. It always ended badly when he stayed. He got up, brushed himself off, tugged his cloak together and started to walk away.

It was so much easier to walk away.

-----

Sasuke looked at Naruto standing there in the rain, blonde hair plastered to his flawlessly chiseled face, drenched and chilled to the bone, and found himself speechless.

There was something vaguely familiar about this picture, and he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

Soaked and dripping, Naruto simply stood there locking eyes with Sasuke. It was a face he hadn't seen in way too long. No matter what anyone said, Uzamakis and Uchihas ought to belong together. There was something about looking at the hopelessly wet Uchiha sitting there staring at him that made him want to laugh. He was so gorgeous, that defined face, his small nose, his blocky cheeks, his dark eyes, his soaking wet blue cloak. His fine brown eyelashes plastered to his perfectly arched cheekbones. His jet-black hair, some of it sticking up in slick spikes, some of it, sopping wet, framing and hugging his slim elegant face. You could call it an infatuation, but to Naruto it was nothing like that.

When you word it like it's a scientific measurement, love sounds nothing like what it is.

There was a thin red gash running down the length of Naruto's thigh from slipping up with a handful of shuriken, and to Sasuke it was a huge turn-on.

But no matter what devious thoughts were running through his head, Sasuke couldn't move. Frozen in place, he just stared and stared at the slash on Naruto's leg, just stared and stared at those catscratches, remembering what they used to do together.

Used to.

There wasn't much left now, though.

Naruto and Sasuke used to be in love. They used to sleep in the sunsets and touch and kiss and know everything about each other. By now they'd forgotten everything, every shiver, every howl, every second they had spent together. But when Sasuke's red and black eyes watched Naruto, memories flooded back. And when Naruto's blue blue eyes watched Sasuke, he started to remember things. He'd tried so hard to forget everything after the brutal breakup—it was a few minutes after that last tangle of legs and bodies in the snow, kissing and snapping limbs and fighting while they loved. Naruto's wrist was broken, and Sasuke had a few deep gashes on his neck. Naruto had even forgotten what exactly happened, and for the time he forgot it was peaceful. He could never forget who broke up with who, though, even though he tried harder than ever to forget that.

Sasuke had tried to forget that, too.

The Uchiha didn't want to do the dirty job of ending it all, splitting them apart and all. But it just didn't feel right, and the blood on the snow was a good reminder that he had to do it sooner or later. And because Sasuke was impatient,

he chose sooner.

And even though it was all past now, there was something about it that wouldn't erase as time after time flashed by and everything came back to mind. It was hard to forget breaking up with someone you wanted to stay with more than anything.

Naruto's ripped shorts flapped a little in the racing icy wind for a moment, and Sasuke caught sight of that scratch again.

He stood up and came forward as a spark in him flared up. What else was there to say? Not much, really. He felt like there was a fuse getting ready to go off inside him, and he was braced for a boom.

A big boom.

Naruto took a few shaky steps forward, too, and the look in Sasuke's eyes blew him away. They put their palms out in perfect synchronization and touched each other's fingertips, slowly closing the space between each other's hands, as if touching a mirror. When Sasuke's lips met Naruto's, another memory came back.

It was of the two of them in the rain, a few months ago, Naruto hanging from a tree, Sasuke standing on the ground with an umbrella, and their faces a hair's breath away.

It was perfect, Sasuke's lips gently parted, Naruto's mouth open as they found the only way they could really afford to hate each other—loving each other. Streaks of raindrops soaked everything; their clothes, their hair, their faces. But it didn't matter, because Sasuke loved the rain.

And whether Naruto liked it or not didn't really matter.


	15. Chapter 15 I might need you

It was just Sasuke and Naruto out there, looking at each other with their soaked hair and their dripping cheeks and smooth wet skin. How the hell Naruto had found him, Sasuke had no idea. But waking up to that long-lost blonde ninja had put him in a pretty damn good mood. Waking up to rain had put him in a good mood in the first place. Of course he had missed the fox. He always missed the fox. Sasuke tipped his head to one side, inspecting Naruto's strong jaw, blocky head, darkened catscratches. It'd been years since the Chunin exams, years since their lips were pushed together by someone they didn't know. Years ago they initially had the hate-love thing going on, and years ago that they were living in. But Sasuke missed it all. Red on white, blood on snow, scarlet on skin. It was worth it all just to kiss him one more time, Sasuke thought. But then, his mind hadn't been its clearest lately—struggles with Itachi, crying and dying in the hills and trees and sun and rain.

It had been hell, of course.

But as he leaned in slowly to gently press his lips to Naruto's, it was all shot to hell. He remembered it all, all those days training side-by-side, hunting down their enemies together, tracing each other's faces into the dust fighting it out to the tooth and bone. Working out their differences in the smoke and grit and streaks of drying blood. Sharing hot coffees with whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkled on top, sitting outside a café in the snow and ice and chill, just laughing at nothing in particular. Making cappuccinos at Sasuke's house with the gorgeous coffeemaker, frothy, foamy bubbles at the top giving Naruto a white mustache. Getting headaches together from the loud music the neighbors blasted and then just sitting in the dark waiting for their migraines to subside. For some reason, any little boring thing seemed intimate with Naruto. Maybe it was just because this was the first time Sasuke ever felt his stomach drop like a cannonball whenever his lover looked at him.

Maybe it was the passion, or maybe it was the romance.

Sasuke remembered it all and shoved his lips hard to Naruto's, a long, bruising kiss that left both of them gasping for breath. As Sasuke fell forward a little into Naruto's warm parted lips, the Uzamaki slipped cold fingers under Sasuke's shirt. The rain was pouring heavily now, but the touch felt electrifyingly hot. Fingers of autumn cold crept over Sasuke's body everywhere but the flaming place where Naruto was touching his chest. Naruto's fingers crept downwards until they were trailing down his lightly lined six-pack. He let out a long breath and tipped his head back, letting Naruto breath on his neck. The feel of hot air on his throat made him shiver, and it had nothing to do with the cold.

"Uzamaki…"

Naruto grinned, tugged on the neck of Sasuke's black shirt, and blew a puff of warm on Sasuke's now bare shoulder. The Uchiha's heartbeat doubled in speed as the prickles of heat touched his skin. The rain was a heavy veil hanging around them now, and they were alone in the drenched wet air.

"Dobe," Sasuke hissed as he doubled over at Naruto's fluttering touch around Sasuke's groin, teasing just above his jeans. Unfortunately, Sasuke wasn't in favor of slouchy, baggy jeans, so the painfully taunting touches around his jeans wasn't low enough for him. He pressed his body frantically to Naruto's, begging for those cold fingers to slip down just an inch or two. His stomach clenched as Naruto laughed a bittersweet quiet laugh and tugged at the edge of Sasuke's jeans. The Uchiha was getting anxious, so anxious. The complications were getting unnerving; complications. They were always there, tugging at his sleeve in the back of his mind. There was always some game going on in his head. It was always "but" "what if" "how will you…" He never just had the simple option of _okay_, enjoy the moment for once, and then regret it later.

He couldn't possibly have any more regrets as painful as the ones he already had.

Sasuke pushed his lips roughly against Naruto's, making it obvious, so obvious, that he couldn't wait much longer. Naruto obliged and eased his fingers along the buttons and zippers. Sasuke's pants were instantly pooled around his ankles…or something.

Naruto's lips had never felt as good as they did then.

As Sasuke pushed his body against Naruto's, he gave a small smile because for once, things were working out. He shoved away the questions of what was right and what would happen because of this and just kissed him back. Sasuke had wanted for too long to kiss him back. So when Naruto duplicated himself, Sasuke didn't blink. When Naruto's clone tugged impatiently on Sasuke's boxers, he went along. And when he felt ready to die from the rush of pain and passion that surged through him, making him painfully aware of everything around him and in him, he just closed his eyes and moved with the thrusts. He tried not to breath or flinch or twitch, and the thunderous beating in his head and pounding against his ribcage fell into a rhythm with the pattering rain, the cracks of thunder, the unexpected flashes of light. Nothing matched up anywhere near perfectly, but it didn't matter. Because the only thing he could hear was Naruto's voice laughing and laughing and laughing.

He couldn't tell whether it was all in his head or not.


	16. Chapter 16 kyuukun

Sasuke woke with one arm hung lazily over Naruto's side, one arm tucked underneath his own back, lips to Naruto's neck, nose buried in that spiky blonde mess of hair. He wasn't in a rush to wake his lover; it had been long enough, in fact, much too long, since he was last offered the opportunity to sleep in. So as he gave a slight smile and closed his eyes again, it felt better than anything to Sasuke. That sleepy feeling creeping over every inch of him, numbing his senses, that almost-yawn building in his throat, the way his stomach rested easily, his heart slowed, every muscle in his body relaxed. He loved falling asleep when normally he would get up.

But goddammit, he was an Uchiha, and everyone alive or dead in that family was fucking restless.

Sasuke stood, frustrated, not because he couldn't sleep, but because his mind wouldn't let him. He wanted to just lie there are pretend nothing was real for an hour or maybe more. But he just couldn't fall asleep with all those frustrations bouncing around in his skull that constantly plagued him, oftentimes about nothing in particular. But there was so much going on, a lot of the time he didn't have to worry about not having enough to think about. Stress tugged at him until every nerve was tensed and ready, prepared to lash out at whatever crossed him wrong next. As the livid-eyed Uchiha rubbed rhythmically at his temples, an angry burn reminded him it was another four-asprin morning. A couple of antidepressants wouldn't hurt either, but he always needed a few of those. In fact, a plain old muscle relaxant sounded heavenly. As Sasuke's brows knitted together irritably, he decided the only remedy for his stressful anger was a teasing kiss that led to two shirtless boys standing there looking at each other, and a touch of the other kind.

Sasuke stomped over to Naruto's side and kicked him, hard, in the ribs. Naruto choked as his eyes flashed open, quickly narrowing into an annoyed glare. Sasuke flinched as Naruto was suddenly standing upright, hands dug into his high-set hips, making him look girly but mad. Sasuke hadn't seen his lover move, but in a second he was eye-to-eye with the Uzamaki, not even giving him the time to blink. Sasuke winced as Naruto's eyes questioned him.

"So?"

"So…what?" Sasuke asked, a little sheepish.

"_So, _why the hell'd you kick me?"

"I was trying to wake you up," Sasuke explained quickly, frantically trying to clear his name. Naruto wasn't the least bit impressed.

"So you just _had_ to _kick _me, huh?"

Sasuke shrugged, at a loss for words. For once.

"Whatever. It's early, and I don't want to be up," Naruto stated firmly, falling face-first back into the tall wet grass. "You could've at least given me until the grass was dry and a little warm."

Sasuke just stared back at him.

"The sun's not even up."

"So?"

"It's fucking cold! And wet, didn't you notice?" Naruto demanded, but to the blonde's dismay, a sly smile crept across the raven-haired boy's face. Naruto's shoulders slumped and he rolled over, giving up.

"What-_ever, _Sasuke."

Sasuke cocked his head to one side and kept smiling that strange little smile. Naruto let out a long breath, threw his hands up in defeat, and stuck his face back into the drenched tall grass. Sasuke drifted silently to Naruto's shoulder and slowly closed his lips around Naruto's ear, careful not to breathe and tip his lover off.

The blonde's head jolted up, his eyes shot open, and his jawbone collided with Sasuke's cheek with a sickening crunch. Naruto was fine; it was Sasuke with the instant bruises. As the blood rushed to Sasuke's face, coloring it vividly purple and blue, the Uchiha glared bitterly at Naruto. The Uzamaki, confused and still caught by surprise, could only watch Sasuke with his mouth hanging lightly open. It didn't mean much to be glared at by Sasuke. But still, he wasn't looking very pleasant. Naruto's fingertips fluttered softly over Sasuke's bruise, afraid to touch. He knew Sasuke was pretty big on personal space. But Sasuke's face fell and his eyes darkened as he dropped his defined jaw and let Naruto's hand rest lightly on his cheek. Naruto drew closer, tipped his head to catch Sasuke's eye, and offered an apologetic smile. Sasuke looked away with a sigh, not wanting to talk. He felt like an idiot now, and was ashamed to be caught the fool. Naruto just grinned and kissed him, his lips spreading open to let Sasuke know it was okay.

Even though it wasn't.

Sasuke returned the kiss, pushing Naruto to the sloping ground, and pressed against him, lips meeting Naruto's and wanting so much more. He strained to keep himself from tearing at the Uzamaki's clothes. Kissing was enough, he told himself, and kept repeating it over and over in his mind. Of course, kissing was never enough. Sasuke always wanted one less shirt or one fewer button. It was always one step less clothing, until they were panting, strikingly nude, just staring at each other, waiting in the staticky, crackling silence for the first move. The Uchiha angled his head to kiss Naruto again, more fiercely this time, and felt his face flush. He realized, more startled than he thought he could be, that he didn't really want to fuck Naruto all that much. He just wanted the Uzamaki to be his, and his alone, and if anyone else touched him, they'd be found a week later cut to hell in the next city.

Sasuke parted his lips a little more as his tongue found its way into Naruto's mouth. The idea used to be disgusting. Thinking about it, writing about it, drawing it, everything about your tongue in someone else's mouth. But it was just so perfect. As Naruto's slight lips curved very slowly into a tiny smile, Sasuke took his chance. He rolled over, gripping Naruto's arms, and let his lover lead. Naruto was so shocked he pulled out of the kiss and blinked at Sasuke. Sasuke stared back, waiting for Naruto to accept that this was how it was.

"So I guess you were destined to be on the bottom, eh Sas-UKE?" Naruto grinned at Sasuke. Sasuke flashed him a look that stated quite clearly that Naruto should just shut up and kiss him before he changed his mind.

Impatient, impatient.

Naruto ducked down, straddling Sasuke at his waist, and felt the Uchiha's jaw unhinge itself a little, somewhat like a snake's, as Naruto's lips hit his. Naruto's blue, blue eyes opened quietly as his teeth scritch-scratched against Sasuke's, dragging like fingernails on a chalkboard. He should have shuddered, should have hated the high creaking noise, but it didn't really matter to him. Naruto relaxed into Sasuke, arms wrapped easily around that sexy spiky hair, a little sleek and a little rough. Sasuke opened his eyes and watched Naruto's face, so close to his, something that would be stamped permanently into his memory. The Uchiha was in love, and he wanted to remember it.

Sasuke's shirt opened a slim crack on its own, and in half a second Naruto's eyes were red and Sasuke felt flames creep across his skin and then cool, turning to puzzle pieces of black patching here and there all over him. Both of them felt the id in them rip through everything else and stand tall. Sasuke wasn't afraid of being too tough. It was in his nature to shred, destroy, and burn. So when he pulled off his shirt to reveal a mesh layer of fishnet, he was perfectly comfortable without much clothing. When leaned in hotly, clutching at Naruto's shoulders and slipping the blonde's black shirt over his head, he was perfectly comfortable with the frozen silence as if time had stopped. When he pressed his lips lustfully to Naruto's, he was perfectly comfortable with the wet grass, the darkened blue skyline, the hot glow playing over his cheeks. When Sasuke felt Naruto's nails sharpen into claws and dig into his back, he was perfectly comfortable with the pain burning holes in his skin through his thin diamond-pattern outfit. And when Naruto's teeth grew sharp and slicing, he was perfectly comfortable with ignoring the way the dagger-like fangs scraped across his gums, scratched his perfect white teeth, cut open his tongue.

Because he'd been dreaming of doing this for a long time.

The splotches and stripes of black that covered his body were turning Sasuke into someone else that was more than just possibly his outer Id. His hair turned slightly purple, and his teeth sharpened too. Sasuke wasn't going full-out demon, but if Naruto wanted to be Kyuubi, he would deal. Actually, whether Naruto wanted to be Kyuubi or not didn't really matter, because if Kyuubi wanted out he was getting out. Sasuke actually kind of liked getting fucked by Kyuubi. He made things pretty damn interesting. Sasuke's subtle hoop earring glinted and clinked as he pressed down into the last kiss before Kyuubi decided that Naruto—and Sasuke, for that matter—would be at a complete loss of clothes.


	17. Chapter 17 burned the sun

Sasuke woke smothered by Naruto's hair. But strangely, though he lay there for several minutes, he heard no faint heartbeat, felt no heat radiating from his lover's skin. When he pressed two fingers lightly to Naruto's wrist, he was alarmed to find no pulse. Sasuke's breathing caught and he was sure he felt his battering heartbeat stop dead for a moment. Sasuke, for once again, was petrified that he was going to lose someone in his life who he genuinely cared about. Itachi had been first; he had acted as though his little brother was a nuisance, never having time for the younger one. So Sasuke had asked his parents and tried and tried to get his older brother's attention. Losing his father's pride was next—he loved his father more than anything and would do anything to impress him. But his father always ignored him, as if the young Uchiha didn't exist because he wasn't "as good" as Itachi. So Sasuke had worn himself to the bone with practice. Then Itachi had murdered the clan and their parents and made Sasuke watch. So Sasuke had sworn to kill his older brother even if it was going to kill him. Then he had lost Naruto with that painful breakup. So Sasuke had tried harder than anything to forget. And now Naruto was….

Dead?

No, he couldn't put it that way. That word stuck in his throat and took his breath away. Dead wasn't true. He couldn't be dead. No one loved that much could be dead. Sasuke licked his chapped lips and watched Naruto's face for any stir or movement. He felt tears sear his cheeks, burning streaks of heat into his cheeks to carve their path. Sasuke suddenly understood what it meant when they talked about Romeo and Juliet. When someone you loved was dead, you wanted to die too. It was like hooks were ripping you apart piece by piece, your lungs hard and cold with gasping, uneven breaths, your heart either thrashing wildly or sitting frozen and numb, your throat burning with icy pain like you'd been running and running and panting for breath. Dead wasn't just dead. Sasuke wanted so badly to see Naruto's eyes open one more time. He let out a pained scream that ripped the early morning mist in half, startling the birds and crackling through the sky.

He felt like a burst of lightning had just supercharged every cell in his body. Sasuke screamed again because screaming to the sky was something you always dreamed of doing. It was like everything poured out of his body. His stomach clenched, his shoulders dropped, his back arched forward a little, and his knees buckled as a kunai hit him square in the back. Tears graced his cheeks like rain in the darkened morning as he sank to his knees and collapsed onto Naruto's silent, still body.

With love comes sacrifice.

Itachi cocked his head to one side and watched the two motionless figures in the grass.

Sasuke's eyes closed quietly and he pressed his face to Naruto's chest, breathing deeply. That smell; pumpkin and nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, orchard apples, homemade orange juice, crisp autumn air, crackling leaves and hot cider. Naruto smelled amazing; he had a distinct, vivid smell. He smelled faintly of aftershave and sweet cream, strawberries, ramen, peach cobbler and pie crust. Naruto's scent was remarkable and as unique as a fingerprint. As Sasuke drank it in before fading out of consciousness, he felt the wind make ripples in his ebony hair and drift over his face, his nose still buried silently in Naruto's shirt. Surprisingly, Naruto had put his clothes back on in the middle of the cool, numbing autumn night. Sasuke inhaled sharply and felt his chest clench as a foot crunched into his back, shoving the blade of the Kunai deeper between his shoulderblades.

"Hn…"

And then Sasuke was out cold, breathing hard and exhausted into Naruto's neck.

* * *

Sasuke woke yet again in the middle of the night to pitch black and silence. Met only with the sound of his own heavy heartbeat, he stared at the darkness, trying to pick out shapes. As the Uchiha waited patiently for the outlines of objects and walls to fade into his vision more and more clearly, Itachi moved smoothly, stealthily, behind Sasuke. He leaned down and touched his lips sensually to Sasuke's neck. The younger of the two froze, hands trembling in midair. Sasuke twitched, suppressed the urge to jerk his head upwards and away from the burning wet touch of tongue to skin, and failed to ignore the fact that his heartbeat had doubled. Eyes wide, afraid to move too suddenly, he licked his lips and stared straight ahead into the black. Slowly, carefully, he said, "Itachi?" A crackling, unsettling laugh was the only response. Uneasy, Sasuke turned slowly to look for his older brother. But there was nothing there that he could see, and it was a bad idea to lash out in pitch black at a target he couldn't place at all. There was a damn good chance Itachi had good night vision, and even without those cat eyes of his he would snap any wrist groping at him in the middle of the night.

As a basic rule of thumb, don't try to fight in the dark unless you have the upper hand and an element of surprise. Neither of which Sasuke had. Itachi had both.

Sasuke swallowed hard and glanced around, keeping his movements minimal. It scared the hell out of Sasuke when that laugh came again from nowhere at all. Sasuke whirled around, eyes wide, and tried to focus his eyes on any kind of movement whatsoever. But Itachi, sitting upside-down on the ceiling, wasn't the kind of guy who just gave his place away so easily. It took the fun out of games. Itachi played a lot of games. Games with words, games with silence, games with knives and guns and jutsus only the best had even heard of. Itachi loved playing cat and mouse. He would stalk his prey, watch them in the night, with a perfect hand of cards allowing him to pounce at any time. And if he didn't want to get his hands dirty, all he had to do was set a trap. Jesus, he was twisted. But that was probably the reason they were so alike, and so different. It wasn't hard to guess they were brothers. You might even be able to guess they were lovers if you looked hard enough. But the thing was, they weren't really lovers. Itachi could never love anyone, and when it came to Sasuke, it was hard to tell what was love and what wasn't. And rivals was obviously the first thing you'd guess.

Sasuke's breathing intensified as Itachi's laughter drove him to petrified silence. Itachi was very good at throwing his voice, and Sasuke knew there was no chance in hell he could locate the older man by merely following the sound of his voice. His voice could haunt you, taunt you, torture you, come at you from every direction. You could hear it even when he wasn't anywhere near you. Itachi could be quiet when he wanted to be, which was a lot of the time. But when it came to really freaking you out, his disembodied laugh did a pretty damn good job. Itachi wouldn't make any noise if he thought it would give him away. He was a confident bastard, dammit. That's what made him so tricky to catch, and even trickier to hold still.

"Hello little boys."

Sasuke's stomach tightened with worried anticipation.

"Little toys."

Sasuke tripped awkwardly over something he immediately recognized to be Naruto. A muffled groan of aching pain made Sasuke start and he instantly hit the floor, searching frantically with shaking hands for pulse or breath. He swore loudly and violently when he found Naruto's ripped shirt and chest sticky with partially dried blood. He was relieved to feel a low, somewhat steady heartbeat pumping in Narutos' ribcage. He leaned down and tenderly kissed the blond, mostly to steady himself, and stood up.

"Okay, _Nii-san_," Sasuke hissed sarcastically, "let's see what you've got."


	18. Chapter 18 checkmate

**Ooookay, people, this chapter is a little weird. Most of it is serious, but forgive me, I got a little ridiculous at the end. I'll change it if it really bugs you. Whatever...Kisame is a bastard, yeah. I really just wanted someone to bite Itachi's ear. ; Anyway, please enjoy it, even if it is a little stupid. **

**J****a! ****xxchuuxx,**

**rainydaylovers**

* * *

By the time Sasuke awoke with a throbbing headache, the fight was merely a memory. He was alone and bleeding in the powdery grey dawn, still sitting inside the rickety old building where Itachi had brought him and Naruto. He looked out a huge scratched window at the sun peaking over the horizon and racked his brain to remember every last detail of the battle. Damn Itachi had won, again. Maybe Sasuke really _had_ wasted his whole life training to kill someone he couldn't come anywhere near defeating. Itachi was always too quick, too strong, too smart. He never needed a back-up plan because his first plan was always unbeatable. When Itachi wanted to win, he won. That was really all there was to it. Sasuke rubbed at the blood and sweat half-dried on his face and grimaced as he touched a deep wet gash on his shoulder. His sleeve was ripped most of the way off; or rather, burned off. Itachi hadn't even bothered with Tsukuyomi this time. Katon, Goukakyu No Jutsu and some quick work with his hands had been enough. He'd snapped Sasuke's wrist again, and kneed him in the stomach hard enough to jolt his breathing. Sasuke exhaled raggedly, closed his eyes, and let the fight play over in his mind. 

_"Itachi!" Sasuke shouted as he blew fire at the older man. Itachi easily avoided the burst of flame by using a replacement jutsu. Sasuke jumped out of the way and hurled a fistful of shuriken at his older brother. As Itachi ducked and made the hand signs for Katon, Goukakyu No Jutsu, a whirlwind of fire leapt from his fingertips. Sasuke got out of the way almost quick enough, but felt the flames dance across his shoulder. Ignoring the burning pain, he gathered a blue flickering ball of chakra in his palm and charged at Itachi, hating him like hell. As he flew at Itachi, he made two shadow clones of himself and threw fistful after fistful of knives and throwing stars. Itachi somehow wasn't hit even once, and simply stood there waiting. Sasuke's battle cry grew louder and angrier as he got closer to the still figure with those cruel red eyes focused on him._

_Then Itachi snapped Sasuke's wrist._

_The Chidori faded. Sasuke screamed and felt a fist collide with his stomach. Itachi made short work of cutting Sasuke a little more, burning him again to wear him down, and turning his back on his agonized younger brother. Sasuke was shaking on the ground, clutching his wrist, staring up at Itachi leaving with Naruto unconscious in his arms. His older brother was ruining everything. Scarlet blood pooled around Sasuke's trembling body as he watched Itachi take away the last thing he cared about. The older man was leaving without any major scratches at all. Somehow he managed to do that a lot. He got away with much more than he should have without getting hurt or taught anything. He never seemed to get hurt; he always got away with the least battle scars, and he never ran. Once he started fighting, he didn't stop until either he was dead or the winner._

_And the part that hurt Sasuke the most was that he had Naruto._

_The blonde was still bleeding and unconscious on Itachi's shoulder. Itachi had left with the Uzamaki for one obvious reason—Kyuubi. Kyuubi was powerful, strong, violent. The Akatsuki desperately wanted Kyuubi for themselves, and they would stop at nothing to get him. The fox. The nine-tailed fox, still restless inside Naruto. Kyuubi and the Uzamaki couldn't be separated, not yet, but until then Itachi needed the blonde. It didn't make a difference that Sasuke loved him. It didn't matter. If Naruto was used as bait, they could lure Sasuke in. Itachi had no idea, really, why he'd had a mini-affair with Sasuke. He refused to call it a true affair because he didn't want to believe that it had been. After all, they were brothers, rivals, haters. They didn't love each other. Itachi didn't want to believe that he had any feelings at all for his sibling, and Sasuke didn't want to believe he had any feelings toward his older brother. They preferred to just hate and hate and say they wanted to kill each other, because it made it simple. Caring was…complex. Just hating and hating made it easy, or at least, easier._

_The hardest part was that they thought about each other more than they should've._

_So now that Itachi had the fox, he could do whatever he wanted._

"Dammit, Itachi," Sasuke snarled at the sky, "why the fuck did you have to take him?"

* * *

Itachi was far away by now, sitting with Kisame, Deidara, Tobi, Sasori, Pein, Zetsu, Kakuzu, Hidan, and Konan. It was early morning, and they were watching Naruto sleep, debating what it was going to take to coax Kyuubi out of him. 

Kisame was bored. He'd been sitting there listening to Itachi and the rest of them talk and talk and talk. So had Sasori and Tobi, of course. Sasori wasn't particularly interested in the conversation and was leaning against a tree silently, and no one wanted to hear what Tobi had to say—as usual—so he was poking a squirrel that was staring at him with a stick. But Kisame was a lot more impatient than the others, and exceptionally restless. He yawned, picked at the wrapping on his sharkskin sword, and bit Itachi's ear. Itachi growled, rubbed his reddening ear, and shot Kisame a deathly glare. "Kisame," Itachi scowled, "you're an insolent bastard." Kisame shrugged. It wasn't very unusual to hear this. After all, he didn't get called a bitch; that wasn't like Itachi at all. But Itachi was pretty damn moody lately, and even if he'd just gotten his hands on the fox, it was expected he wasn't going to be all that happy about having any part of him bitten. No matter what triumph he made, he wasn't going to dance in circles, and he certainly wasn't going to cry, even if he lost to his little brother. He might get pissy and kill everyone in a 5-mile radius, but he sure as hell wasn't going to cry. It was just the way it worked.

**(AN—sorry about contradicting myself in past chapters, but it really is necessary. Itachi shouldn't cry, and for god's sakes, people, he's never gonna be happy, no matter what you do.)**

Kisame hoped he'd sent a shock down Itachi's spine when his teeth closed around the Uchiha's ear. Kisame _was_ a bastard, as far as the term went, and he'd be smugger than ever if he actually made Itachi shudder at a sensual touch. Itachi would never admit it, obviously, but he knew Kisame was the kind of deceiving man who'd want that kind of reaction. Itachi glared at Kisame again, hating him for that ridiculous action, and returned to the conversation. Kisame sighed, still smirking a little, and walked off into the trees, thinking harder than usual about Uchihas and everything about them.


	19. Chapter 19 down to the bone

"The Uzamaki is awake," a smooth voice hissed in Itachi's ear. The dark-haired missing-nin gave a sly grin, showing a little crack of sharpened teeth, and swooped over to Naruto. It was true; the blonde was stirring. Awake was a bit of a stretch, but he would be soon. Naruto rubbed the sleep from his eyes, dropped his jaw in a lazy yawn, and sat up, smoothing his hair a little with two fingers. Montego-Bay blue eyes flashed open as Naruto stared panickedly around at the group of dark-looking figures. Itachi was next to him by now, those startlingly red eyes dotted with black swirls way, way too close to his face. Those eyes left him breathless. He couldn't help think they were beautiful; haunting, creepy, wakes-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night, but beautiful. It went without saying that Itachi was gorgeous. He was an Uchiha. Uchihas were naturally cruel, sinister, and good-looking. Smarts and charms were part of the package, too. Honestly, the only real flaw was that they were fucking _bitches_, Naruto thought bitterly. They were perfect, desirable, sexy, powerful, and so much more—but they were mean as hell. Nasty as bees. Angry bees.

Angry bees after you poked their nest.

"So, fox," Itachi said in an even, almost amused tone, eying Naruto with interest. "How was your sleep?"

Naruto scrambled backwards, scuttling like a crab, and bounced up onto both feet. He felt a dribble of sweat find its way down his jawbone from his hairline. He cocked an eyebrow at the older man, fists clenched rigid, toes curled and ready to kick, the wristband of knives and shuriken angled perfectly to be drawn from. Itachi's lip curled up into a smile. He walked a clean circle around Naruto, his hot sweet breath on the boy's neck, his fingers trailing playfully south, tracing his waistline. Naruto warily kept his eyes on Itachi and his fingers balled together in tight fists. Itachi's lips came to rest on Naruto's ear, and the younger boy flinched at their soft warm touch. A shock traveled down his spine from his tingling earlobe. Itachi was still smiling that eerie little smile. It was weirding Naruto out. The Uzamaki wasn't fully awake yet, and he knew he couldn't throw a good punch if he really needed to defend himself. Still watching Itachi with tensed muscles and frantically angry eyes, he moved his hand slowly down to his belt. Slipping two fingers into his pocket, he drew a Kunai and with trembling hands, held it to Itachi's throat. The Uchiha snickered and moved forward into Naruto's parted lips.

The blonde's eyes were wide as he tasted Itachi for the first time.

He tasted strange—almost like peppermint. It seemed strange that Itachi would taste like anything other than blood or cold metal, something that would sting or burn or taste like poison. But he tasted like peppermint.

Peppermint, dammit. Peppermint.

Naruto felt himself lean into Itachi and press his full weight against him. He hated himself for it. Dammit, that stupid peppermint taste reminded him of Sasuke. Maybe it was an Uchiha thing. They were always perfect. Perfect tasting, perfect looking, perfect thinking. Perfect at ruining things, too. Looking for love never worked. It just happened. You heard a voice, you saw a face, you locked eyes, and suddenly you were hopelessly caught up in them. Thinking about them, all the time. _All_ the time. Naruto wished he could erase everything. Just shove his finger on a button, or pull his finger on a trigger. Anything to erase those faces, that touch, those eyes, those stupid fucking peppermint taste. The way Sasuke looked at him and breathed in his ear. Itachi's dark voice and floaty walk. Sasuke's hot breath, his lips, his dark deep eyes. The kisses, the tears, the blood and hurt. He used to think it was worth it.

Now he had no idea what he'd been thinking.

So as Itachi drifted away from Naruto, licking the blood off his wrist where Naruto had dug the Kunai deep into him as they kissed, the Uzamaki found himself collapsing. He lay there on the dirt as the sky began to pour black and blue, like bruises, oceans and shadows. He lay there in the mud as the clouds started to curl around him like blankets of knives. He lay there in the puddles as the sky started to laugh at him in crackles of lightning and claps of thunder. He lay there in the rain as the mist poked at him like needles. He lay there in the pools of blue as the raindrops drenched him and soaked chills deep into his skin. He lay there in the sky as the blonde in fishnets scooped him up and carried him more gently than he expected off into the darkening afternoon. He lay there in cool arms as the memories of Sasuke started to rip him apart piece by piece. He lay there, alone in a crowded place, as the Akatsuki watched the sun set on one very long, wet, painful day. He lay there, eyes closed, and pretended the wet on his face was rain as the night fell.


	20. Chapter 20 breaking surface

**You like lemon? Well here ya go. Chyea bitches. xD Thanks so much for everyone's support and all else. Love, hugs, and kisses to all. Thanks soso much. Ok, I'm done now.**

**Just a warning, this is ItaNaru/NaruIta. Please don't flame just because you don't like the damn pairing.**

**Oh, and DDB, I know you hate ItaNaru, but give it a chance. Please! xD**

**xoxo,**

**rainydaylovers**

**On to the lemon!**

* * *

Naruto closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at the spitefully grey duskline, and wondered why Itachi acted the way he had earlier. He held his breath so he would be able to focus his energy on the blazing throb in his chest, and wondered if Itachi wanted him for anything other than Kyuubi. He stopped his heart so he wouldn't have to feel the shattering pounding against his ribcage. He lay there for hours with the hunger and worry eating away at his stomach. He caught his thoughts and flushed them away so he wouldn't have to think about both of the Uchihas. Stupid people, cost more than they were worth. But Naruto caught himself. He was thinking again. Thinking brought a rush of emotions and blood and hate and love that peeled away the numbness. It was like Novocain, when you stopped thinking. You didn't feel anything, you didn't hurt, you didn't cry or yell or anything. Because if you didn't think about something, it got shoved away into your preconscious mind. That way, if you didn't let yourself think, didn't let anything remind you of it, didn't let yourself flip through any of the memories, there was nothing to worry about. You wouldn't cry, wouldn't die. 

You were invincible, and you were numb.

Naruto took a deep breath and got up, stepping carefully around the bodies lying carelessly with their heaving chests and uneven snores. Tobi was sprawled out over a rock, Deidara was lying lazily in a tree, Kisame was rolled into a ball, Sasori was on his side, Zetsu was face-down, Kuzuku was hiding in his robe, Hidan was leaning against a tree trunk, and Itachi was nowhere to be found. Naruto eyed each of them carefully and slipped away into the night. He was only walking, and taking it slow and quiet, so after fifteen minutes or so he wasn't all that far away. It was dark enough that they probably wouldn't see him if they woke up and looked around. But Naruto was more concerned than ever about being careful, so he crept slowly, keeping close to the ground, watching where he put his feet, ears perked for any noise. Naruto jumped about a foot into the air when he felt fingers close around his wrist and a voice snickering by his ear. His breath quickened and his throat closed over. Staring straight ahead, the Uzamaki tried to pretend that he didn't feel that laughing breath on his shoulder, didn't feel those smooth black nails digging into his arm, didn't feel that presence looming behind him, see that puff of warm air coming from behind him, signaling breath.

He closed his eyes and counted to ten, and decided he would just let things happen the way they were destined to.

A sharp inhalation and he was spun around to face that gorgeous dark face, those bitterly sharp teeth curved into a smirking grin, those black and red eyes locked with his own. Naruto grimaced, swallowed hard, and felt panic rise in his throat. As Itachi's face came closer in a mocking smile and he felt blazingly hot lips press against his neck, he flinched and moved to escape. Itachi, his fingers still wrapped around Naruto's wrist, tightened his grip and twisted, making Naruto bite his lip. A trickle of scarlet etched its way down Naruto's chin as Itachi continued to turn his arm. Naruto had no choice but to move with the turns or Itachi would have broken the blonde's wrist. The damn Uchiha was more trouble than he was worth. He was tricky. When Naruto turned and followed Itachi's twisting, the Uchiha made him at level with a very tricky area.

Naruto's eyes flew fully open. He looked up at Itachi, who still had a strong grip on the blonde's arm. The younger boy's eyebrow flicked up to ask if Itachi was really serious. The older man narrowed his eyes to make it very clear. Naruto's gaze traveled south and he took a deep, unsteady breath.

Those blue blue eyes focused on a particular spot beneath Itachi's robe.

Itachi smiled again and slipped coolly out of his cloak. Naruto gulped and stared long and hard into Itachi's eyes. The older man was smirking and nodding, and Naruto was sure he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Itachi reached down and tugged at the elastic on his boxers, cocking an eyebrow at Naruto, waiting for the boy to react. He was impatient. Damn, he was impatient. Naruto watched Itachi for a few moments longer before he wriggled out of his own shirt and jeans.

_Why am I doing this?_ Naruto wondered as he pulled Itachi's shorts down, exposing a very demanding erection. Naruto didn't shudder, he didn't quiver, he didn't blink. It was like he wanted this, but no; he couldn't possibly _want_ this, could he? Naruto shut up and blew warm air across Itachi's erection. It jumped as Naruto kissed the tip, and the blonde gritted his teeth. Naruto let out a long breath, more to steady himself than anything else, and felt Itachi's cock get even harder as the tip was taken into the warm, wet caverns of a very bitter mouth. Naruto closed his eyes and sucked, praying it would be over quickly. Teeth scraped across Itachi's quivering erection, and his smirk of pleasure could be heard in the moan. The noises Itachi was making as Naruto's tongue slid over length wasn't helping Naruto believe this would end soon. Fingers started to touch and toes began to curl. For some reason, Itachi wasn't the only one enjoying this. As Naruto's teeth scrawled over Itachi's tip and he listened to the moan, he decided he was ready enough to do this.

At the sound of Itachi's moan, he pulled his lips from Sasuke's cock and pushed the older man against a tree. He felt no resistance. As Naruto moved close, standing upright again, he kissed Itachi long and hard, his tongue doing just as well with Itachi's mouth as it had with his dick. Itachi's hands were in Naruto's hair, keeping him pressed against his chest. He licked his lips and opened his mouth a little more, his fingertips digging into the back of Naruto's neck. Itachi pulled forward so his head was on Naruto's shoulder and breathed on the younger boy's ear, leaving Naruto with, surprisingly, a tingling erection. There was something very sensitive in his ear that was making people seemed to like tasting.

The bulge against his erection reminded Itachi that Naruto was still wearing boxers. Itachi scowled and motioned to them. Naruto's hands left Itachi's shoulders to take them off and throw them somewhere, he felt careful, elegant fingers wrap around his erection, tightening for a second as Naruto's teeth scraped across his neck and chiseled feminine shoulders. Itachi's other hand went to Naruto's back, painted nails scraping as he swirled his fingers in sensual circles at the end of Naruto's spine. He didn't expect Naruto to snap at the moment he did, but suddenly the blonde's hands were tight around Itachi's erection again and he was slipping his fingertips in, pressing his groin against Itachi's waist. Itachi gave a sly grin and angled his body to enter the Uzamaki. Naruto moaned, his head tilted backwards, and bucked his hips. Naruto was getting impatient though, because only Itachi's tip ever entered him, slipping in and out, teasing and taunting and making Naruto ache. He wanted Itachi all the way in, and he wanted him in _now_.

Itachi slid out until only his very tip was still inside Naruto. Naruto threw back his head and howled, a whine ending his despairing cry. He looked with pleading blue eyes at Itachi, who was looking deviously satisfied with Naruto's current state. He might have begged if his voice was still in him, but his mind only screamed one thing, and that was hunger. And then the Uchiha back in, painfully hard, completely filling Naruto. Itachi needed to switch places and spin so Naruto's back was to the tree. Then he thrusted in and pumped, and Naruto screamed, back jolting against the oak. Naruto's screams always ended in what seemed to be strangled sobs, not sure whether he was begging Itachi to stop or slow down or go harder and faster. Itachi was in and then he was out, again and again, and Naruto's yowls grew more and more desperate each time. It wasn't long before Itachi got what he had been so recklessly and determinedly prying for, and Naruto's yells changed dramatically, from a mere moan to a scream of pain and angst and plead and passion.

Itachi's vicious little grin was getting more and more hard to avoid, so Naruto closed his eyes and let Itachi press his lips to the pressure point on his neck, where his heartbeat was jamming and screeching on and off at a frantic pace, and he held his breath and let Itachi's warm sexy mouth close around his tender red ear.


	21. Chapter 21 gasping for breath

Naruto took a deep breath and steadied himself. Itachi, asleep in a heap on one branch of the tree, suddenly looked vulnerable and very tempting. The blonde cocked his head to one side and watched the Uchiha's chest rise and fall. Itachi's eyes were closed. Naruto had never seen Itachi sleep. He looked so peaceful, so strangely content, nothing like he was when he was awake. Naruto moved to his side, nose almost touching Itachi's. The Uchiha wake up and scramble backwards like he should've. His cruel red eyes didn't flash open, angry at anything he could see. He didn't flinch or yawn or move. He just breathed hot sweet air on Naruto's face, the warm breath caressing the bridge of Naruto's nose and making his eyes stretch wide. The younger boy's eyes skimmed lightly, interestedly, over Itachi's slumbering figure. The Uzamaki felt his breath catch when his faze flickered over Itachi's smooth, slender ankle. Under his cloak he was quite feminine, slim, just a tangle of lean legs and flat abs. He wasn't very muscled—somewhat, but not very bulked—and Naruto's brow furrowed as he recalled being shoved against the tree, his head slamming against the rough bark. He scowled. Who did that Itachi guy think he was?

That damn Uchiha was _not_ going to uke _Naruto_ out. It just wasn't happening.

Itachi was still asleep when Naruto eased him out of his Akatsuki cloak, took all his weapons, and tossed them down from the tree. Itachi's breathing only jolted slightly when Naruto picked him up and leaped from the branch. He only shifted a little in his sleep when Naruto's lips hit his and the Uchiha was torn from all else of his clothes. Naruto stared down, amused, at the man lying there, blinking, yawning, almost awake. Naruto knew if he was quick and got going soon, he would be able to convince Itachi that it was a dream and make him just lay back and enjoy it. He grinned a sharp-toothed grin and ran his tongue around the edge of Itachi's lips. The Uchiha smiled callousedly, still looking oblivious and drowsy, and put his hands on Naruto's bare, slim shoulders. Itachi was so cute when he slept…and when he dreamed…and sleep-walked…

That was all it took.

A ragged cry told the rest of the Akatsuki that Naruto and Itachi were at it again, and judging from the loud, heavy breathing, and Itachi's barely audible voice whining and pleading, all fingers were pointing towards the possibility of Naruto getting the best of the raven-haired man.

Blue, blue eyes stared hungrily down at their prey. Itachi's surprised sharingan danced in his own eyes from behind half-lidded, black-lashed sleep spells. Naruto leaned down and left a fluttering kiss on Itachi's neck, making the barely-conscious missing nin aching for more. Itachi's fingers clutched at the back of Naruto's neck as they kissed again. Suddenly Naruto had Itachi pinned and was quickly finding his strengths against Itachi's body.

"Feminine bitch," Naruto grinned, and Itachi growled an angry warning at the boy straddling him from behind. Itachi's face slammed into the dust as he miserably let Naruto have it. He hated, hated, _hated_ being uke, but struggling was more trouble than it was worth. Let Naruto have his damn screw, he'd regain his dignity later. He was barely awake and the blonde was already driving him insane with exhaustion. He just wanted to get it over with and go back to sleep. The blonde pumped and pumped, his breath ragged from exertion by Itachi's ear, and the raven-haired had to admit that Naruto wasn't terrible at this…The boy was a natural. Obviously. Itachi grimaced but bit back his cries. He refused to act like an uke, even if he was forced to play the role completely against his will. You can only shove an Uchiha's nose into the ground so many times.

Naruto's sexy voice laughed distantly somewhere around the area of Itachi's neck.

Wait a second—_sexy?_ Since when was Itachi having these thoughts? Since when did he think _Naruto_ was sexy, or charming, or even just attractive? His standards were obviously lowering. But when Naruto's teeth raked along Itachi's bare shoulder and then sank into the high of his arm, Itachi started having second thoughts. He _was_ talented, and good-looking, and cute…Dammit, he'd just thought the word cute. Stupid fucking Naruto.

The blonde-haired teen was turning Itachi inside-out.

Itachi's breath hitched as his lover's ankle slid along the inside of his thigh, and the raven-haired closed his eyes and let his heart batter his stomach. He felt every muscle tense and then relax every time Naruto moved. He was a surprisingly good lover, and there was no denying that. Itachi wasn't the kind of guy who would stay with the Uzamaki, but if Sasuke got him, he ought to spend a night with the boy too. He could make one night feel like a hundred, and he could make you believe you were drowning. The Uzamaki brought out emotions you didn't know you had in you. Itachi's chin jutted up as Naruto bit his ear, hard.

Really hard.

"Feels spectacular, eh, Itachi?" Naruto snickered in his ear.

"What?" Itachi choked, gasping for breath.

"The ear."

Itachi could barely manage to nod. He shoved his face into the grass and decided to play the game, too. He wanted the friction. He wouldn't let his own damn brother be running against him in the race for Naruto's affection.

Challenges made Itachi overly competitive. When he decided he wanted to win, he would win. Either triumph or die. Even though he didn't care…about Naruto.

Naruto's hot breath on the Uchiha's neck made Itachi gasp. He shuddered as the skin there prickled. Naruto was such a tease. Itachi's nose hit the ground and he started to swear under his breath, telling himself over and over this was a one-night stand. As a whimper escaped against his will, he found himself praying Naruto would finish what he started. The blonde chuckled and his fingers crept along Itachi's chest. He slipped out, leaving Itachi feeling devastatingly empty, and threw his head over the Uchiha's shoulder. He sucked on Itachi's nipple, waiting for a response, waiting until he heard frantic heavy breathing quicken times two. Naruto ignored the fact that he felt like his ribs were being shattered by a sledgehammer every time his heart beat, which was faster by usual. Besides, he thought, grinning and grinning and nibbling the nipple and sucking on it masterfully between his slightly puckered lips, at this rate his heart would be dead by the end of the night.

It was a frightening but exhilarating thought.

He swirled Itachi's nipple around with his tongue, pursed his lips, and nibbled the edge. Itachi bucked his hips and grabbed Naruto's wrist, his face deathly serious, his grip firm and cold. He wanted this badly.

Naruto would make him wait, though. It was fun to make him wait. It was fun to play games. He tipped his head back and looked at the sky. It was gorgeous. Star-speckled midnight blue. Captivating. A sliver of dancing moonlight. The silhouette of a tree, and the faraway blinking lights of a spaceship. The distant, disconnected growl of a plane finding its way across the night sky. The twittering of a bat, watching them curiously. The Uzamaki smiled a little, because he loved being out here in the night, the dark, almost by himself when he thought about it. Loving was tragically but beautifully isolated.

His lips graced Itachi's skin with a fluttering kiss, leaving the Uchiha aching for more. Naruto wouldn't oblige, but he lay there with his lover, thinking about what might happen next. Deep down Sasuke was the largest thing on their minds, but neither his brother nor his lover wanted to think that far ahead. It was painful, almost, to imagine the look on Sasuke's face if he found out. Puzzled, amused, uncaring, angry, upset, frustrated, betrayed, confused. How he took it was up to him. That scared the hell out of both Itachi and Naruto; what would he do? What would he say? What would the strangled look in his eyes betray, would he purse his lips and cock his head to one side? Would he stare at them breathlessly, at a loss for words, or would he shrug and walk away? Itachi and Naruto were both the kind of people who always wanted to be control, and when fate took the wheel they were constantly nervous, restless, hands quivering over something they meant to pick up. When they lost control of the world around them in the miniscule box they managed to keep a hold on, they wouldn't be able to sleep. No matter how oblivious Naruto acted or how cool Itachi came off as, they wouldn't rest well until they were back behind the wheel.

And God had taken the wheel from them.

_Tonight you will see the face of God._

A struggle for control, grasping at power…that was just how it worked. Always.

Naruto fell back, a cool breath escaping his lips like his soul was leaving with it, and his eyes closed. The eyelashes fell against his high, slim cheekbones. He was getting thinner every day. Naruto was never heavy, not at all. Sasuke was nimble and catlike, and Naruto was always skinny. He'd gotten slinkier as the years slipped by. The pounds melted off and eventually you could see a hint of ribs here and there. He wasn't paying much attention to himself lately. Itachi's elegant fingers closed around Naruto's thin waist, his hands stretching across the boy's chest, holding him in place. So Naruto's eyes stayed closed and they lay there feeling one another's heartbeats, through skin and bone, and they never saw the sun dot the sky with splotches of red and peach; they never watched the sunrise splatter the horizon with traces of watercolor paintings; they never saw the orchard colors spill dapples of orange and pink that might have reminded Naruto of sweet homemade orange juice on a tree's breath. That hazy scent drifting thick everywhere. Naruto's eyes _were _open now, and all the reminders were coming back. The Uzamaki swore under his breath. For some reason he always seemed to be thinking of one Uchiha or the other. Something flared up in his eyes, and he scowled. Itachi was already asleep again, his mouth gently open on Naruto's shoulder, his warm chest pressed against the Uzamaki's back, his arm draped lazily over Naruto's thin frame.

Naruto tried to ease his way out of Itachi's touch, but the Uchiha mirrored the blonde's movements, his warm pulsing skin falling against Naruto's body wherever the Uzamaki tried to escape. Naruto felt cloth smother his face, and realized he was inside Itachi's Akatsuki cloak. He and the Uchiha fell asleep, forgetting the battles they'd always fought in the dark warm spaces of the cloak…The teen and the raven-haired faded out of the sun then, pressed lightly together under the black and red cloth, as if they would melt in the daylight. It didn't make much difference they could hardly breathe, and the sun was coming up, and the night was far gone, and there was Sasuke to think about, and they were only a heaving, living, breathing lump in the middle of the field, and it was morning now, and they were barely clothed.

It didn't matter anymore, like everything else.


	22. Chapter 22 poison apples

Naruto awoke, dazed, next to Itachi. He scrambled backwards. The Uchiha was _still _here? It was just too weird—they'd been "hanging out" together for too long. He should've taken off hours ago. Brushing himself off, Naruto got up, yawned, and walked off.

Itachi's red-rimmed fiery eyes watched Naruto's back fade off into the yawning skyline.

And that was that.

-----

Sasuke awoke and tumbled from the rafter. He caught himself just in time to avoid a broken ankle. With a wide yawn, he stretched and glanced around himself. His eyes darted around the room and he remembered, blinking, that Naruto was gone. It'd been at least a day, if not more. The Uchiha had been tired, so he slept. His wounds were partially healed over, anyway. Sasuke's chin fell and his gaze hit the floor. He didn't want to think of losing Naruto to that scumbag of a brother. Dammit. He couldn't believe he'd lost. His breath came in short, broken gasps as he stumbled into the creeping daylight, climbing lazily over the horizon. His small red mouth turned down into a scowl. Naruto used to say how Sasuke's mouth was so delicate and smooth and uke-ish. Sasuke would always growl and turn away and run his tongue around his lips, trying to think of what he could do to change that. Naruto also talked about the Uchiha's eyes a lot. They were _bold_, they were _bright_; _pretty_, even, if he was in a daring mood. Sasuke would sharpen those eyes into a very temperamental glare and stalk off whenever Naruto threw that one at him. The blonde was a handful. He was sweet, though, and worth every minute, every scowl, every glare.

Sasuke cursed himself, because his mind had wandered instead in the direction of the man who had taken Naruto away.

But—who could _not_ think of Itachi? He was cruel, he was sexy, he was feminine; cold and bruising and powerful, all rolled into one. He was like a fire. So pretty to look at, but it would burn up your eyes if you looked too long. Sometimes flickering and soft, but so easily powerful, eager to catch a spark and explode into life. Itachi, like fire, got out of hand very quickly and ended up hurting people. Burning things. Ruining in its ragged bright beauty. He was so rough, but so pretty. His long black hair, his frighteningly beautiful eyes. That hauntingly smooth voice, rolling over every word to make it sound sensual. That arrogant, uncaring scowl, as if he couldn't give a damn either way. His hissing, warning moodiness like a red flag. His flashing glare whenever he got angry, or when he got interested. That passionate growl when his cloak fluttered open…Sasuke couldn't tear his thoughts away. He kept thinking them, scolding himself for each bit of clothing that Itachi had in his fantasies as the seconds ticked by…but eventually he just lay back in the sweet cool grass, his smooth clear skin caressed by the first rippling waves of sun, and thought about Itachi.

He closed his eyes and breathed into a restless mouth positioned, waiting, less than an inch above his.

The moments closed as their heaving breaths joined and the air became, suddenly humid, a veil around them. Itachi's lips fell onto Sasuke's neck, and he choked on his own breath, trying to tame the itch to kiss his brother. Sasuke's eyes opened slowly and he tattooed into his mind the image of Itachi's chin resting on the bridge of his nose. The older Uchiha sighed quietly and his lips met Sasuke's. Sasuke let the sunlight seep into the picture of the two of them lying there in the grass. It was a picture Sasuke had been painted into far too many times. Some would say it was just…play. Game after game, time after time, he went through man after man, kiss after kiss. But it was better to have loved and lost...than never to have loved at all…right? The spiky-haired boy touched his tongue to Itachi's flawlessly carved white teeth, feeling the electrifying current of energy go from one body to the next and back again.

Suddenly Uchiha Sasuke wanted the friction more than anything.

He pushed Itachi to the ground and straddled him, his eyes wide and frantic, searching his brother's face for consent.

Oh, fuck it all, he didn't need any damn consent.

Itachi's face flushed as Sasuke's lips were shoved roughly against his. He felt a warm red tingle race across the bridge of his nose, blood surging to his cheeks. The older boy closed his eyes and dipped his head to deepen the kiss. Sasuke's mind drained and he felt a shock burst through his chest. His jaw opened fully and he ground his hips against Itachi's, begging him to take off that cloak.

"Just k-kiss me," Itachi gasped as Sasuke's teeth scraped over the pulse point on his neck. The older man somehow just made such a natural uke, even Sasuke could manage to pin him…and for god's sakes, Sasu-kun was practically destined to be a bottom…Itachi's voice rasped in Sasuke's ear again as his back lifted subtly off the ground and he wrapped his arms tenderly around Sasuke's neck. His fingers inched back, slipped under the edge of Sasuke's jeans, his fingertips kissing the incredibly sensitive spots closer and closer to the base of his brother's spine…

"Stop it!" Sasuke hissed, half-pouty, half-angry. His black eyes turned red faster than they should've. Itachi's mouth turned up a bit at the edge, revealing the smallest sliver of blinding white. The riddles in Itachi's eyes narrowed down to a point, and the punch line finally rolled around to smash into Sasuke's face. He did a double take and collapsed on top of his older brother. Itachi's cloak shifted open and suddenly they were moving together, and it was and wasn't exactly the same as anything they'd ever done.

"Itachi, are you a slut?"

Itachi grimaced.

"Why the hell would you ask me that, Sasuke?"

"Because I feel like you've done everyone I know."

"Sasuke, you always ruin the mood."

"Dammit, Itachi, who've you slept with?"

"You."

"And?"

"Some sand-nin your age who was…hn…at a party."

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"_And?_"

"Naruto," Itachi muttered irritably.

"What?"

"Naruto," Itachi replied, even more quietly this time. His sulky expression made Sasuke both grin and scowl at the same time. Sasuke laughed inwardly, but just glared at Itachi. For effect…of course.

"Slut."

"Sasuke!"

"What?"  
Itachi was silent.

"Fuck you," he finally hissed, very faintly, under his breath.

Sasuke smirked and watched his brother.

"Who else?"

"Sasuke—"

"Who?"

"A long time ago, Kisame. But that's none of your business."

"And…?"

"Fuck off, Sasuke."

"You sound like Naruto."

Sasuke was grinning crookedly.


	23. Chapter 23 jealousy

**This is a flashback, guys!**

**Thanks to all my reviewers, but please, review often! **

**Ja!**

**- Jaychan**

_

* * *

_

_The red-haired sand-nin's eyebrow raised._

_"A threesome? From what I've heard about your reputation, that's not like you at all, Itachi."_

_Itachi glared at the redhead._

_"What does it matter? I'm offering. It's a simple yes or no question."_

_A hot puff of breath on Itachi's neck distracted his attention from the conversation. He shuddered against the body close behind him, those lovely hips pressed against Itachi's spine. The ravenhaired's chin fell to his chest and he let out a long heavy exhalation. It was hard to say no to the silver-haired sensei standing behind him._

_"Soon enough, Kakashi."_

_Itachi could feel Kakashi's leering, somewhat drunk grin just by the unbreaking breath on the back of his neck. Gaara's stomach tightened. He was curious what sex with Itachi would be like, but Kakashi and Itachi seemed close. It didn't sound like a very good idea. After all, Kakashi was hanging all over Itachi. But that might've just been the fact that he was drunk. Very, very drunk._

_"O-okay."_

_"Huh?"_

_Kakashi looked up from where he was looming over Itachi, who was shrinking, in annoyance, out of the intoxicated fingers' way. The wide, crooked smile on Kakashi's face told Gaara he was drunk enough to fuck anything that moved, if asked. Hell, he might even fuck Shikamaru. But you might have to pay him._

_"I'll do it."_

_Itachi nodded, knowing Kakashi was too woozy to process words at this point. Gaara sighed, still a little wary of Kakashi's current state, but followed Itachi and Kakashi to the back room of the party._

_Itachi's elegant fingers clicked the lock shut._

_Suddenly everything seemed to stop. It was as if being in the bedroom, the door locked, the blinds pulled, snapped the three of them into the realization of what was going to happen if they decided to do it. Kakashi rapidly stopped being giddy. However it happened, he dropped the act—or whatever it was—and quickly, very quickly, his wide grinning eyes were narrowed into a sultry bedroom gaze. Gaara glanced at the silver-haired ninja and was surprised to find himself lost in those smooth, chocolatey eyes. The sand-nin blinked and turned to Itachi. The Uchiha seemed quite serious as well. Kakashi pushed Gaara, to the bed, his mask slipping down as his breath met with Gaara's. Their faces were unnaturally close, and Gaara blinked up at the older man's face. A small smirk flitted across the Hatake's face and his mouth fell roughly, yet tenderly, against the red-haired boy's. Itachi was suddenly right there beside them, his lips closing around Gaara's ear._

_Kakashi undressed himself and Itachi, his black mask in a loop around his neck. His strangely serious face closed in on Gaara's, his nose touching the younger one's sensually. Itachi's fingers snaked their way up the sand nin's shirt, pulling it off of his shoulders. The Uchiha's lips pressed sexily to the Kaze's stomach, his face shamelessly interested. Itachi's fingers slipped under the edge of Gaara's jeans and pulled them to his ankles. Gaara stood up carefully and let the other two lead him to a wall, his back pushed to the navy wallpaper, and Gaara slowly sat down against the wall, Kakashi in front of him, Itachi behind. Itachi licked a slow, pink tongue along Gaara's spine. The red-haired ninja's back convulsed with the sensation. Kakashi's head dipped to place his lips around Gaara's cock. The sand-nin's stomach clenched and his face slammed against his chest, a violent blush surging to his cheekbones._

_Itachi's arms looped around Gaara's waist. His toned abs tightened as Kakashi's tongue went to work at his member. Itachi sucked on Gaara's neck, his arms wrapped around the younger boy's shoulders. His arms were warm and powerful and comforting. Kakashi did a sort of sit-up to meet the redhead's mouth. The kiss was longer and deeper than usual, and did the sort of probing that only your doctor should ever be doing._

_Itachi's stifled breaths on Gaara's neck was making him all hot and heavy for Kakashi. For some reason, it didn't really matter who he was kissing, as long as he was kissing someone as a return for that warm puffs of air on his skin. For some reason, Itachi's skin suddenly looked edible, and instead of porcelain it was now the color of coffee with four creams. It was suddenly something Gaara wanted to drink in on a cold winter night. It was something warm and inviting and…well…he wanted to cover it in whipped cream and lick it off._

_Gaara's voice cracked._

_His head was suddenly closer than ever to Itachi's and Kakashi seemed far away. He tipped his head back and felt a swirl of precum on his ankle from where he crouched. It was Itachi's. Gaara whirled around and tried to capture Itachi's eyes with his own. Those lovely green eyes dipped into the pitiless shadows of the Uchiha's gaze. They stared at each other with a sort of intensity that would've made anyone but them tremble. Kakashi sat back on his heels and watched Gaara crouch, catlike, over Itachi, who sat casually, boldly, beneath him. The sand nin pinned him to the wall and shoved his lips to Itachi's lips. Kakashi just watched, amused, as Gaara's breathing grew more choppy and heavy over Itachi's lips._

_Itachi tipped his head back and let Gaara's lips collide with his neck, those cool wet lips surrounding the pressure point on his throat. Gaara was sitting with his legs spread open obscenely wide, undoing Itachi's pants. The Uchiha was still pinned to the wall, his mouth slightly open and a fiendish curve of raw sexuality to his lips. Figuring he was probably going to be the odd man out for a while, Kakashi turned away and started to read a book that was sitting on the nightstand._

_A low moan broke from the other side of the room. Kakashi didn't have enough willpower to keep himself from looking. He didn't really care, he told himself, but an image immediately burned itself into his mind that he wouldn't ever be able to shake._

_Gaara's pants had been pulled partially down to reveal his smooth cream-colored buttocks. His arms were braced, so that only his lower body touched Kakashi. The silver-haired man was on his back beneath him, his body slightly curled, his shoulders lifted off the floor as he kissed Gaara's chiseled, pale chest. Gaara's body rose and fell rhythmically. Another low moan escaped Kakashi's lips. He didn't look a bit funny or bored now. He looked intent on being seriously fucked by the Kaze inches above him._

_Kakashi felt the heat crawl up his neck, like tiny searing needles pushed into his skin. Shit. Itachi never saw the color drain from Kakashi's face, never saw his head fall into his hands, never saw the sensei struggle with himself in a battle of whether to stay or go. Kakashi couldn't bear to watch, but it was impossible to look away._

_Itachi felt Gaara press deeper into him, his body impossibly hot and beaded with droplets of sweat like watery pearls slipping down his skin, his eyes dark and violent, like the gathering power before a storm, a fit of rain and thunder and cracks of light. Itachi's eyes were hazy and smooth at the same time, somewhat content, somewhat bitter, somewhat lustful. His hands reached up to touch Gaara's arms, to curl his fingers around those lean biceps, to feel something real other than that disconnected writhing feeling clawing at his groin. Gaara went harder and deeper each time he drew out and thrusted in, and it wasn't long before Itachi was breathing hard and his nails were digging into those gorgeous arms. The feeling was surreal._

_It inched its way up, that tingling sensation of pleasure and pain and excitement, up to his lower stomach. Gaara was close and he was there, his breath hugging Itachi's flawless skin, his muscles defined just enough to be sexy but not over-built. He threw back his head and howled, but Kakashi had already stormed out._

_The silver-haired ninja sat outside against the wall, wearing only his slack blue jeans and brown belt, his mask covering his sharingan eye and half of his face at a slant. He always covered that eye when he didn't want to talk. He considered locking himself in the bathroom on the next floor and not coming out, but he wasn't ready to move. So he sat, curled into a ball, hugging his knees and glaring at the cracks in the floorboards, the obnoxiously loud party music pounding at his ears, his heart pounding at his chest, and his breath pounding to get out. But he stayed silent, unmoving, unbreathing, because he was afraid that the slightest movement might break him, like touching a flightless baby bird. He _was_ like a baby bird, he thought in distaste. How pathetic was that? But it was the truth. He couldn't move, couldn't cry, couldn't defend himself, couldn't speak or run or do anything but cry for someone to come and comfort him, and he couldn't do what he wanted to do most: fly away._


	24. urgent!

_To my lovely readers--_

by the looks of it, Bloody History is going to be discontinued. Sorry to all, but if anyone still cares about it, review! Once I hit 50 reviews, we'll launch into more plot and shit... mkay? Updates for reviews, guys.

Thanks.

_xxchuuxx_


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